Monkey Metacognition Could Generate More Insight

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Robert Hampton, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-11-01
• Publisher: Unicus
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: ©Attribution
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
• Final Published Version (URL): https://doi.org/10.26451%2Fabc.06.04.02.2019
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Animal Behavior and Cognition
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 230
• End Page: 235
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by National Science Foundation grant BCS-1632477 and by the National Institutes of Health Office of Research Infrastructure Programs, P51OD011132.
• Keywords: explicit; primate; introspection; cognitive control; implicit
• Research Categories: Psychology, Cognitive; Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

Monkeys demonstrate metacognition by avoiding memory tests when they forget, seeking information when ignorant, and gambling sensibly after making judgments. Some of this metacognition appears to be based on introspection of private mental states. It is likely that nonhuman cognitive systems, like human systems, differ in accessibility to such introspective metacognition, and the extent to which differences in access map to explicit and implicit cognition will be an important topic for future work. It will be exciting to learn more about the distribution of metacognition among species, and the conditions under which metacognition evolves.