Chimps Move To Prove They Are Right

by Monica Joshi

Chimpanzees are marvelous creatures. Jane Goodall has spent her whole life trying to understand them. As chimps share over 98 percent of our DNA, they have been known to make and hunt with spears. As it turns out, they are now also capable of metacognition, in that they are able to think about their own thinking.

Researchers at Georgia State University, Agnes Scott College, Wofford College, and the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York have discovered that chimpanzees not only are capable of metacognition, but also can adjust their behaviour based on this metacognition.

Published in the journal Cognition, their findings suggest that this reflects a form of cognition control that underlies intelligent decision-making across species. Metacognition occurs when individuals respond with either high or low confidence to what they know (or don't know). Given a certain level of confidence that they exude, it can be a clear measure of how humans are able to monitor their own levels of knowledge.

Humans are able to report confidence in a few different ways such as: using an oral reportage of confidence or lack thereof, numerical rating scales, and body language. The study team used this knowledge to see if nonhuman animals showed similar behavioural indications of confidence and uncertainty.

In the course of the study, three chimps were tested using a series of computerized tests. The chimps were required to remember and memorize certain things and had to remember these things for various periods of time. After each memory test, there was a short break before the computer gave the chimps feedback about whether or not the answer was correct. If the answer was correct, a food reward was delivered, but that's not all. The reward was specifically delivered away from where the chimps were working on the memory test. The reward was lost if the chimps had not moved to the location when the reward was delivered. This meant that after the test they had two options: They could wait to hear whether the answer was correct and then rush over to the food area, or they could move to the reward area with confidence that their answers were correct.

One thing that they wanted to replicate in the study was something that chimps do all day in a forest: leaping from one branch to another without hesitation. This could suggest a chimpanzee knew it would clear the gap between those branches. In addition, a long but direct travel path to a tree with ripe fruit on it could suggest the chimpanzees were confident food would be there. The research team’s goal was to create an analogous situation in the laboratory, using computerized tests of memory and confidence.

Associate director of Language Research Center, Michael Beran, from Georgia State explained:

“The team’s approach was to think about what chimpanzees might naturally do in the wild that requires them to reflect on their knowledge and then act confidently or perhaps hesitate before moving."

The research team considered these early movements to the reward area as indications of the chimpanzees’ confidence in their responses to the memory test.

Audrey Parrish, researcher from Georgia State pointed out that:

“They did not have to do this. The computer would always tell them whether they were right or wrong, but by moving early when they knew they were right, they got a head start toward retrieving their reward.”

This study does not show that chimps have the exact same conscious experiences that we do as humans when we act metacognitively, but it does show a form of cognitive control that is a part of intelligent decision-making across species. A vital next step would be to see whether other species demonstrate similar cognitive capacities. It would also be interesting to see whether the chimps use the same parts of the brain as humans do during metacognitive function.