Skip to main content
Dryad

Cuttlefish retrieve whether they smelt or saw a previously encountered item

Billard, Pauline1; Clayton, Nicola S.2; Jozet-Alves, Christelle1

Published Mar 13, 2020 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.h44j0zpfx

Data files

Mar 13, 2020 version files 67.02 KB

Abstract

According to the Source Monitoring Framework, the origin of a memory is remembered through the retrieval of specific features (e.g. perceptive, sensitive, affective signals). In two source discrimination tasks, we studied the ability of cuttlefish to remember the modality in which an item had been presented several hours ago. In experiment 1, cuttlefish were able to retrieve the modality of presentation of a crab (visual vs olfactory) sensed before 1h and 3hrs delays. In experiment 2, cuttlefish were trained to retrieve the modality of presentation of fish, shrimp, and crabs. After training, cuttlefish performed the task with another item never encountered before (e.g. mussel). Cuttlefish successfully passed transfer tests without and with delay (3hrs). This study is the first to show the ability to discriminate between two sensory modalities (i.e. see vs smell) in an animal. Taken together, these results suggest that cuttlefish can retrieve perceptual features of a previous event, namely whether they had seen or smelled an item.