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Review
. 2023 Jan;26(1):25-35.
doi: 10.1007/s10071-022-01662-0. Epub 2022 Aug 1.

Social cognition and metacognition in great apes: a theory

Michael Tomasello  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Social cognition and metacognition in great apes: a theory

Michael Tomasello. Anim Cogn. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

Twenty-five years ago, at the founding of this journal, there existed only a few conflicting findings about great apes' social-cognitive skills (theory of mind). In the 2 ½ decades since, we have discovered that great apes understand the goals, intentions, perceptions, and knowledge of others, and they use this knowledge to their advantage in competitive interactions. Twenty-five years ago there existed basically no studies on great apes' metacognitive skills. In the 2 ½ decades since, we have discovered that great apes monitor their uncertainty and base their decisions on that, or else decide to gather more information to make better decisions. The current paper reviews the past 25 years of research on great ape social cognition and metacognition and proposes a theory about how the two are evolutionarily related.

Keywords: Great apes; Metacognition; Social cognition; Theory of mind.

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