Metacognition in the rat.

Full Abstract

The ability to reflect on one's own mental processes, termed metacognition, is a defining feature of human existence [1, 2]. Consequently, a fundamental question in comparative cognition is whether nonhuman animals have knowledge of their own cognitive states [3]. Recent evidence suggests that people and nonhuman primates [4-8] but not less "cognitively sophisticated" species [3, 9, 10] are capable of metacognition. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that rats are capable of metacognition--i.e., they know when they do not know the answer in a duration-discrimination test. Before taking the duration test, rats were given the opportunity to decline the test. On other trials, they were not given the option to decline the test. Accurate performance on the duration test yielded a large reward, whereas inaccurate performance resulted in no reward. Declining a test yielded a small but guaranteed reward. If rats possess knowledge regarding whether they know the answer to the test, they would be expected to decline most frequently on difficult tests and show lowest accuracy on difficult tests that cannot be declined [4]. Our data provide evidence for both predictions and suggest that a nonprimate has knowledge of its own cognitive state.

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Author information

Author/s: Foote, Allison L (AL); Crystal, Jonathon D (JD);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA.

Grants: MH64799 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; R01 MH064799-03 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Current biology : CB (Curr Biol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Mar; vol 17 (issue 6) : pp 551-5

Dates: Created 2007/03/20; Completed 2007/06/18; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 17346969, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Male
Rats - psychology
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Reward

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