Research Overview:
A fundamental characteristic of higher levels of consciousness is the awareness of one’s own thoughts and feelings. Do dolphins have this kind of awareness? This was the question addressed in a study by Jonathan Schull of Haverford College and David Smith of the New School for Social Research.
In the experiment, the dolphin, Natua, heard either a variable low tone or a high tone, and learned to press corresponding paddles. Natua had no difficulty with most of the trials. But on some trials, the variable tone would approach the pitch of the high tone, which made it difficult to determine if it was to be considered high or low. These crucial trials were too difficult for the dolphin to be sure of success. On these trials, the dolphin could make a special response to ask for an easier trial, but it would only make sense to do that if he KNEW that he DIDN’T KNOW THE ANSWER.
Schull and Smith pointed out that by “bailing out” of these most difficult trials, Natua demonstrated that he was aware of his own doubts, that he could think about his own thinking. This ability is known as metacognition. The data produced was comparable to that collected for humans and rhesus monkeys.
Natua was the first non-human animal to show evidence of metacognition.
