Cargando…
Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus)
Over the last two decades, evidence has accrued that at least some nonhuman animals possess metacognitive abilities. However, of the carnivores, only domestic dogs have been tested. Although rarely represented in the psychological literature, foxes are good candidates for metacognition given that th...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7287701/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32357527 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs10050081 |
_version_ | 1783545109334196224 |
---|---|
author | Eaton, Taryn Billette, Patricia Vonk, Jennifer |
author_facet | Eaton, Taryn Billette, Patricia Vonk, Jennifer |
author_sort | Eaton, Taryn |
collection | PubMed |
description | Over the last two decades, evidence has accrued that at least some nonhuman animals possess metacognitive abilities. However, of the carnivores, only domestic dogs have been tested. Although rarely represented in the psychological literature, foxes are good candidates for metacognition given that they cache their food. Two experiments assessed metacognition in one male arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) for the first time. An information-seeking paradigm was used, in which the subject had the opportunity to discover which compartment was baited before making a choice by looking through a transparent window in the apparatus. In the first experiment, choice accuracy during seen trials was equal to choice accuracy on unseen trials. Importantly, there was no significant difference between the subject’s looking behavior on seen versus unseen trials. In the second experiment, with chance probabilities reduced, the subject’s choice accuracy on both seen and unseen trials was below chance. The subject did not exhibit looking behavior in any of the trials. Latencies to choose were not influenced by whether he witnessed baiting. Although we did not obtain evidence of metacognition in our tests of a single subject, we maintain that foxes may be good candidates for further tests using similar methodologies to those introduced here. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7287701 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-72877012020-06-15 Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) Eaton, Taryn Billette, Patricia Vonk, Jennifer Behav Sci (Basel) Article Over the last two decades, evidence has accrued that at least some nonhuman animals possess metacognitive abilities. However, of the carnivores, only domestic dogs have been tested. Although rarely represented in the psychological literature, foxes are good candidates for metacognition given that they cache their food. Two experiments assessed metacognition in one male arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) for the first time. An information-seeking paradigm was used, in which the subject had the opportunity to discover which compartment was baited before making a choice by looking through a transparent window in the apparatus. In the first experiment, choice accuracy during seen trials was equal to choice accuracy on unseen trials. Importantly, there was no significant difference between the subject’s looking behavior on seen versus unseen trials. In the second experiment, with chance probabilities reduced, the subject’s choice accuracy on both seen and unseen trials was below chance. The subject did not exhibit looking behavior in any of the trials. Latencies to choose were not influenced by whether he witnessed baiting. Although we did not obtain evidence of metacognition in our tests of a single subject, we maintain that foxes may be good candidates for further tests using similar methodologies to those introduced here. MDPI 2020-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7287701/ /pubmed/32357527 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs10050081 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Eaton, Taryn Billette, Patricia Vonk, Jennifer Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) |
title | Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) |
title_full | Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) |
title_fullStr | Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) |
title_full_unstemmed | Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) |
title_short | Are there Metacognitivists in the Fox Hole? A Preliminary Test of Information Seeking in an Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) |
title_sort | are there metacognitivists in the fox hole? a preliminary test of information seeking in an arctic fox (vulpes lagopus) |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7287701/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32357527 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs10050081 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT eatontaryn aretheremetacognitivistsinthefoxholeapreliminarytestofinformationseekinginanarcticfoxvulpeslagopus AT billettepatricia aretheremetacognitivistsinthefoxholeapreliminarytestofinformationseekinginanarcticfoxvulpeslagopus AT vonkjennifer aretheremetacognitivistsinthefoxholeapreliminarytestofinformationseekinginanarcticfoxvulpeslagopus |