Can Animals or Computers Have Metacognition?

Dolphins can be trained to report their confidence in their own judgments.

Is metacognition unique to humans? We cannot ask animals for a verbal judgment about their behavior, but ingenious animal-friendly tests can nonetheless probe whether other creatures form thoughts about their own thoughts.

In a pioneering experiment, psychologist David Smith of the University at Buffalo trained a dolphin named Natua to swim toward one of two levers when he heard either a low- or high-pitched sound. When Natua answered correctly, he scored a fish. But some sounds were more difficult for him to distinguish. So Smith introduced a third lever, which triggered an easier trial and let Natua collect his fish. The dolphin learned to press this lever only on more difficult trials.

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