Delayed Gratification

 You're at the party, but it would be rude to reach for the treats just yet.

Humans show the ability to delay gratification. We can turn down inferior food because we know superior food is coming. For example, leaving space for dessert.

A lot of animals can't do that. Delayed gratification as a foraging behavior is limited to "higher" animals, and is demonstrated in great apes (and some other primates), parrots, corvids.

We test for this using the marshmallow test. In 1972, we studied a bunch of kids to see just how long they were willing to ignore one pretzel on the promise of two, to see when self control develops in children. (It supposedly also proved that more self control equals a better life, but larger studies showed it isn't a significant effect). Not being able to wait is a symptom of ADHD.

Now we have added a new animal to the list of species able to pass the marshmallow test: Cuttlefish.

Cuttlefish.

A non-social, non-tool using invertebrate. The theory is that while social species practice delayed gratification to improve social bonds, cuttlefish have learned it so that they can prioritize not being eaten over snatching food right then.

Of course, cephalopods are pretty intelligent. There's a reason I don't eat calamari.