动物的元认知能力研究综述

Animals' Metacognition

“知道自己知道,知道自己不知道”,这种“元认知”能力被看成是人类最复杂的认知能力之一;目前学者们对人类的元认知能力进行了比较深入地研究,这时人们不禁会问:这种普遍存在于人类身上的基本认知能力,在动物身上是否也同样存在呢?一些学者做了实验研究加以考察,并提出两个相反的观点;这个领域的研究也在这样的争论中不断发展,通过对动物元认知模式的研究,科学家可以回答这一问题并试图描绘出动物进化的图谱,以及认知因素在物种进化中的作用,更重要的是,它为我们从物种学角度探讨意识和自我意识的起源提供了很好的思考角度。

Humans have the capacity to feel consciously uncertain and to know when they know. It is a natural and important question whether non-human animals share the sophisticated uncertainty monitoring and metacognition capacity. If animals display uncertainty or suspicion when they come across difficult settings, it will prove that they have the ability of metacognition. Researches in this area are tough, because animals can＇t report their uncertainty as humans do. Through similar methods applied to humans and animals, the researchers may map the development of the cognitive systems and find the origin of consciousness.