Metacognition in Rats
Metacognition is simply put, “thinking about thinking.” It is also being aware of your own intelligence. One example is being aware that it might be easier for you to comprehend a novel rather than a complex scientific paper. Another example is getting a sinking feeling during a test. But it is hard to detect if animals experience this, mostly because they can’t tell researchers what they’re thinking. Scientists can only rely on animal behavior, for example, monkeys placing lower bets on their answers, the harder a test gets. Tests have also been done on dolphins, showing similar results. However, smaller-brained animals have shown no signs of metacognition in the lab.
A study was done by neuroscientist Jonathon Crystal and his student, Allison Foote to see if rats were any different. They conducted a test on classifying sounds. The researchers trained the rats to associate a short burst of static, which lasted 2 seconds, with one lever and a long burst of static, lasting 8 seconds, with another. If the rats pushed the correct lever, they were rewarded with 6 food pellets. If they pushed the wrong one, they would get no reward and no chance to try again. After a while, the rats realized that if they just poked their nose into a food trough, they would get half the reward.
Once the rats were used to the test, the researchers changed it. Instead of playing short and long sounds, they played intermediate bursts of static. This way, it was more difficult for the rats to distinguish between long and short sounds. In this experiment, the rats were twice as likely to go to the trough without pushing a lever.
To test their theory further, Crystal and Foote did the experiment again, but without a food trough. When forced to take the test, the rats performed poorly. It was just as they predicted. This experiment shows that rats are able to assess their own knowledge, much like we do. Other researchers believe that if this is true in rats, just as it has been found in monkeys and dolphins, then maybe it’s true for other mammals as well.
-Wild Thing
posted by PWH @ 7:18 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
The concept of other animals realizing their own thoughts is really quite interesting. It makes sense that there is a correlation between the size of the animal's brain and its capability to perform metacognition, however I feel with animals such as whales or elephants that might be as applicible. I think it would be intriguing if somehow scientists could design experiments to determine the degree of metacognition that the organism experiences. One would obviously believe that humans feel the greatest amount, but this brings up the pressing question why. What is it that makes human constantly aware of the fact that they themselves are thinking. Whatever the reason, it's a very mysterious topic of science.
mazzawi6
This comment has been removed by the author.
Metacognition is an interesting subject for gerontologists, too.
The way people evaluate their abilities as they age has been proved to affect their problem solving activities. People just tent to think their cognitive abilities decline as they get old. This idea usually results in decline of self-esteem.
This article is dealing with metacognition among animals, which is an interesting point.
After reading the article, I felt that we can see this phenomenon in dogs. Some dogs simply don’t eat the treats strangers offer and some they sacrifice themselves for their owners; a dog saving the owner from a house on fire can be one example.
I think the field of animal behavior is very important since the studies can be applied to human mental therapy and to other various fields.
Thank you for an interesting article! I enjoyed it!
Posted by clearsky83
This study performed on rats is a great step in the right direction I feel. If it is true that rats and other animals realize what they are doing and what they are thinking then this will in turn help us humans understand ourselves more. Time and time again we use animal subjects to futher our own understanding of ourselves, metacognition will be no different in this sense. This is an extreemly interesting topic, good choice!
Post a Comment
<< Home