Metacognition in Animals

It’s hardly news to animal lovers that humans aren’t the only intelligent creatures on earth. An article published in the September issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences corroborates this long-held belief. The man behind the research, David Smith, PhD, says that the research group studied rats, pigeons, monkeys, apes, and a dolphin to evaluate their memory, perception, and food-concealment patterns. The research indicated that the monkeys, apes, and the dolphin (nicknamed Natua) all possessed conscious metacongnition, which according to Smith “rivals language and tool use in its potential to establish important continuities or discontinuities between human and animal minds.”