13 December 2006

Metacognition: Known unknowns

Murph, who is 10, sits in front of his computer screen playing a game that consists of classifying images. He finds out how he is doing after several rounds, with happy whoops for right and buzzers for wrong. He doesn’t seem to like being told he is wrong but has learned that he can avoid this by choosing to pass when he is not sure of the correct answer. Natua plays a similar game, but he has to discriminate between sounds, choosing whether they are high or low-pitched. He doesn’t like being wrong either, and when the task gets really tough he also chooses to pass rather than guess.

We all know that feeling of not knowing. When an answer pops into our heads we get a buzz of confident recognition, an “aha” moment. If we don’t know, we might feel a frustrating tip-of-the-tongue sensation, a mild form of panic or embarrassment, perhaps even gut-wrenching anxiety when we realise that we don’t have a clue.

Maybe that explains why Murph and Natua would rather pass and admit they don’t know than get it wrong. People do this all the time, so what’s the big deal? Well, Murph is a monkey, and Natua a dolphin. Their game-playing has got some researchers very excited because it suggests that these animals might know something about what’s on their own minds.

Knowing what you know, and what you do not, may not sound that clever, but it is a very important mental skill. Philosophers have long debated the significance of being able to think about thinking or know about knowing. This …

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