CAT 2021 Slot 1 — VARC Question 5
Direction for Reading Comprehension: The passages given here are followed by some questions that have four answer choices; read the passage carefully and pick the option whose answer best aligns with the passage.
Cuttlefish are full of personality, as behavioral ecologist Alexandra Schnell found out while researching the cephalopod's potential to display self-control. . . . " Self-control is thought to be the cornerstone of intelligence, as it is an important prerequisite for complex decision-making and planning for the future," says Schnell . . .
[Schnell's] study used a modified version of the " marshmallow test " . . . During the original marshmallow test, psychologist Walter Mischel presented children between age four and six with one marshmallow. He told them that if they waited 15 minutes and didn't eat it, he would give them a second marshmallow. A long-term follow-up study showed that the children who waited for the second marshmallow had more success later in life. . . . The cuttlefish version of the experiment looked a lot different. The researchers worked with six cuttlefish under nine months old and presented them with seafood instead of sweets. (Preliminary experiments showed that cuttlefishes' favorite food is live grass shrimp, while raw prawns are so-so and Asian shore crab is nearly unacceptable.) Since the researchers couldn't explain to the cuttlefish that they would need to wait for their shrimp, they trained them to recognize certain shapes that indicated when a food item would become available. The symbols were pasted on transparent drawers so that the cuttlefish could see the food that was stored inside. One drawer, labeled with a circle to mean "immediate," held raw king prawn. Another drawer, labeled with a triangle to mean "delayed," held live grass shrimp. During a control experiment, square labels meant "never."
"If their self-control is flexible and I hadn't just trained them to wait in any context, you would expect the cuttlefish to take the immediate reward [in the control], even if it's their second preference," says Schnell . . . and that's what they did. That showed the researchers that cuttlefish wouldn't reject the prawns if it was the only food available. In the experimental trials, the cuttlefish didn't jump on the prawns if the live grass shrimp were labeled with a triangle - many waited for the shrimp drawer to open up. Each time the cuttlefish showed it could wait, the researchers tacked another ten seconds on to the next round of waiting before releasing the shrimp. The longest that a cuttlefish waited was 130 seconds.
Schnell [says] that the cuttlefish usually sat at the bottom of the tank and looked at the two food items while they waited, but sometimes, they would turn away from the king prawn "as if to distract themselves from the temptation of the immediate reward." In past studies, humans, chimpanzees, parrots and dogs also tried to distract themselves while waiting for a reward.
Not every species can use self-control, but most of the animals that can share another trait in common: long, social lives. Cuttlefish, on the other hand, are solitary creatures that don't form relationships even with mates or young. . . . "We don't know if living in a social group is important for complex cognition unless we also show those abilities are lacking in less social species," says . . . comparative psychologist Jennifer Vonk.
Which one of the following, if true, would best complement the passage's findings?
Answer & solution
- A
Cuttlefish are equally fond of live grass shrimp and raw prawn.
- B
Cuttlefish wait longer than 100 seconds for the shrimp drawer to open up.
Cuttlefish live in big groups that exhibit sociability.
- D
Cuttlefish cannot distinguish between geometrical shapes.
Easy
"Complement the findings" means: pick the additional fact that, if true, would best reinforce and extend the study's conclusion. The study shows cuttlefish have self-control, yet they are solitary — whereas most self-controlled animals are social. The expert (Vonk) notes that to test whether sociability is needed for complex cognition, you must check less-social species. A finding that strengthens the social-life link would best complement this.
Wrong. If cuttlefish liked grass shrimp and raw prawn equally, the whole experiment collapses — there would be no preferred reward worth waiting for, so no self-control could be demonstrated. This undermines, not complements, the findings.
Wrong. The passage already states the longest wait was 130 seconds (more than 100). This merely repeats a known detail; it adds nothing new to complement the findings.
Correct. The passage links self-control with "long, social lives," yet flags cuttlefish as solitary, leaving the social-cognition connection unresolved. If cuttlefish were in fact social, the result would align neatly with the broader pattern that self-controlled species are social — complementing and reinforcing the study's expected trend.
Wrong. If cuttlefish could not tell the shapes apart, they could not know which drawer to wait for, negating the experiment's premise. This destroys the findings rather than complementing them.
Option C. Cuttlefish being social would make the self-control result fit the established "social species" pattern, best complementing the findings.