Inaugurating the Study of Animal Metacognition

Abstract

Metacognition-the ability to monitor and control one's own cognition-is a sophisticated ability that reveals humans' reflective mind and consciousness. Researchers have begun to explore whether animals share humans' metacognitive capacity. This article reprises the original study that explored metacognition across species. A captive dolphin performed an auditory pitch-discrimination task using High/Low discrimination responses and an Uncertainty response with which he could decline to complete any trials he chose. He selectively declined the difficult trials near his discriminative threshold-just as humans do. This comparative exploration of metacognition required a trial-intensive titration of perceptual threshold and the training of a distinctive behavioral response. It could not have been conducted in the wild, though the naturalistic observation of dolphin uncertainty behaviors and risk-management strategies would no doubt yield complementary insights. The dolphin study inaugurated a new area of cross-species research. This research area opens a new window on reflective mind in animals, illuminates the phylogenetic emergence of metacognition, and may reveal the antecedents of human consciousness.

Keywords: comparative psychology; decision making under uncertainty; dolphin cognition; metacognition; uncertainty monitoring.

Figure 1

The dolphin participant in the study of Smith et al. (1995). Photograph Credit: Dolphin Research Center, Inc., Grassy Key, Florida. Used with permission.

Figure 2

Performance by a dolphin in the auditory discrimination of Smith et al. (1995). The horizontal axis indicates the frequency (Hz) of the trial. The High response was correct for tones at 2,100 Hz—these trials are represented by the rightmost data point for each curve. All lower-pitched tones deserved the Low response. The green-dashed and red-dotted lines, respectively, show the dolphin’s percentage of High and Low responses at each frequency level. From “The Uncertain Response in the Bottlenosed Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus),” by J. D. Smith, J. Schull, J. Strote, K. McGee, R. Egnor, and L. Erb, 1995, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, p. 399. Copyright 1995 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

Figure 3

Performance by a dolphin in the auditory discrimination of Smith et al. (1995). The horizontal axis indicates the frequency (Hz) of the trial. The High response was correct for tones at 2,100 Hz—these trials are represented by the rightmost data point for each curve. All lower-pitched tones deserved the Low response. The green-dashed and red-dotted lines, respectively, show the dolphin’s percentage of High and Low responses at each frequency level. The blue-solid line shows the dolphin’s percentage of Uncertainty responses at each frequency level. From “The Uncertain Response in the Bottlenosed Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus),” by J. D. Smith, J. Schull, J. Strote, K. McGee, R. Egnor, and L. Erb, 1995, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, p. 399. Copyright 1995 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

Figure 4

Ancillary behaviors by a dolphin during performance in the auditory discrimination of Smith et al. (1995). The horizontal axis indicates the frequency (Hz) of the trial. The dolphin’s weighted overall Factor 1 behavior (hesitancy, slowing, wavering) is shown for each frequency level. From “The Uncertain Response in the Bottlenosed Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus),” by J. D. Smith, J. Schull, J. Strote, K. McGee, R. Egnor, and L. Erb, 1995, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, p. 402. Copyright 1995 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.