Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Metacognition

Metacognition

Metacognition is a conscious process where individuals are aware of their cognitive and executive processes, such as planning before solving a problem or self-monitoring during reading. For instance, a writer may need help with composing a piece. The situation involves a writer who is working on a piece of writing, but while doing so, they realize that something is missing. They notice that their characters lack depth or details. This realization occurs because the writer is reflecting on their...

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious mimicry occurs when individuals alter their mannerisms to match the behaviors and expressions of those nearby, without intention.

Hindsight Biases

Hindsight Biases

Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you relate this to the phrase "Hindsight is 20/20" now?

Instinctive Drift

Instinctive Drift

Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Assessments of Evoked and Spontaneous Pain Following Administration of Gabapentin and the Cannabinoid CB<sub>2</sub> Agonist LY2828360 in a Rat Model of Spared Nerve Injury.

Cannabis and cannabinoid research·2026

Same author

Rats replay episodic memories in context.

Current biology : CB·2026

Same author

Editorial.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition·2025

Same author

Assessments of Evoked and Spontaneous Pain Following Administration of Gabapentin and the Cannabinoid CB<sub>2</sub> agonist LY2828360 in a Rat Model of Spared Nerve Injury.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Episodic memory in non-humans: an approach to understand an evolutionary function of consciousness.

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences·2025

Same author

MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IMPAIRS EPISODIC MEMORY IN RATS.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same journal

Eye Tracking in Dogs: Achievements and Challenges.

Comparative cognition & behavior reviews·2024

Same journal

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Domestic Dog: Research, Methodology, and Conceptual Issues.

Comparative cognition & behavior reviews·2018

Same journal

Animal Pitch Perception: Melodies and Harmonies.

Comparative cognition & behavior reviews·2017

Same journal

The Organization of Behavior Over Time: Insights from Mid-Session Reversal.

Comparative cognition & behavior reviews·2016

Same journal

Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Impulsive and Risky Choice in Rats.

Comparative cognition & behavior reviews·2016

Same journal

Metacognition in animals: Trends and challenges.

Comparative cognition & behavior reviews·2015

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Testing for Metacognitive Responding Using an Odor-based Delayed Match-to-Sample Test in Rats

Testing for Metacognitive Responding Using an Odor-based Delayed Match-to-Sample Test in Rats

Published on: June 18, 2018

Metacognition in animals.

Jonathon D Crystal¹, Allison L Foote¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602-3013.

Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews

|October 31, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Existing animal models for metacognition (thinking about thinking) may be insufficient. New methods are needed to accurately assess metacognition and establish updated scientific standards.

Keywords:

Metacognition comparative metacognition metamemory quantitative modeling uncertainty monitoring

More Related Videos

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

Published on: July 8, 2025

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Published on: November 6, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Testing for Metacognitive Responding Using an Odor-based Delayed Match-to-Sample Test in Rats

Testing for Metacognitive Responding Using an Odor-based Delayed Match-to-Sample Test in Rats

Published on: June 18, 2018

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae

Published on: July 8, 2025

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Using Pharmacological Manipulation and High-precision Radio Telemetry to Study the Spatial Cognition in Free-ranging Animals

Published on: November 6, 2016

Area of Science:

Cognitive science
Animal behavior
Neuroscience

Background:

Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is crucial for understanding cognition.
Animal models are vital for studying the evolution of mind and neurobiology of cognitive impairments.
Current methods for documenting metacognition in animals face significant challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate the adequacy of prevailing standards for documenting metacognition in animal models.
To highlight the limitations of existing methods in capturing true metacognitive abilities.
To advocate for the development of novel methodologies in metacognition research.

Main Methods:

Formal modeling of low-level cognitive mechanisms.
Analysis of existing data from animal metacognition studies.
Conceptual assessment of current methodological standards.

Main Results:

Prevailing standards for documenting metacognition are inadequate.
Low-level alternative mechanisms sufficiently explain data from existing methods.
Current methods may not accurately reflect genuine metacognitive processes in animals.

Conclusions:

There is a critical need for innovative methods to study animal metacognition.
New methods are essential to overcome the limitations of current approaches.
Developing new methodologies will likely lead to revised standards for assessing metacognition.