Editing Metacognition (section)

=== In pigeons ===
Research on metacognition of pigeons has shown limited success. Inman and Shettleworth (1999) employed the delayed match to sample (DMTS) procedure to test pigeons’ metacognition.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Inman|first1=Alastair|last2=Shettleworth|first2=Sara J.|date=1999|title=Detecting metamemory in nonverbal subjects: A test with pigeons.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.25.3.389|journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes|volume=25|issue=3|pages=389–395|doi=10.1037/0097-7403.25.3.389|issn=1939-2184|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Pigeons were presented with one of three sample shapes (a triangle, a square, or a star) and then they were required to peck the matched sample when three stimuli simultaneously appeared on the screen at the end of the retention interval. A safe key was also presented in some trials next to three sample stimuli which allow them to decline that trial. Pigeons received a high reward for pecking correct stimuli, a middle-level reward for pecking the safe key, and nothing if they pecked the wrong stimuli. Inman and Shettleworth's first experiment found that pigeons’ accuracies were lower and they were more likely to choose the safe key as the retention interval between presentation of stimuli and test increased. However, in Experiment 2, when pigeons were presented with the option to escape or take the test before the test phase, there was no relationship between choosing the safe key and longer retention interval. Adams and Santi (2011) also employed the DMTS procedure in a perceptual discrimination task during which pigeons were trained to discriminate between durations of illumination.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Allison Adams|first=Angelo Santi|title=Pigeons exhibit higher accuracy for chosen memory tests than for forced memory tests in duration matching-to-sample|journal=[[Learning & Behavior]]|year=2011|volume=39|issue=1|pages=1–11|doi=10.1007/s13420-010-0001-7|pmid=21264568|s2cid=40008821 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Pigeons did not choose the escape option more often as the retention interval increased during initial testing. After extended training, they learned to escape the difficult trials. However, these patterns might be attributed to the possibility that pigeons learned the association between escape responses and longer retention delay.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Iwasaki|first1=Sumie|last2=Kuroshima|first2=Hika|last3=Fujita|first3=Kazuo|date=2019-11-01|title=Pigeons show metamemory by requesting reduced working memory loads.|journal=Animal Behavior and Cognition|volume=6|issue=4|pages=247–253|doi=10.26451/abc.06.04.04.2019|issn=2372-5052|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In addition to DMTS paradigm, Castro and Wasserman (2013) proved that pigeons can exhibit adaptive and efficient information-seeking behavior in the same-different discrimination task.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Castro|first1=Leyre|last2=Wasserman|first2=Edward A.|date=March 2013|title=Information-seeking behavior: exploring metacognitive control in pigeons|url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10071-012-0569-8|journal=Animal Cognition|language=en|volume=16|issue=2|pages=241–254|doi=10.1007/s10071-012-0569-8|pmid=23065186|s2cid=9730580|issn=1435-9448|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Two arrays of items were presented simultaneously in which the two sets of items were either identical or different from one another. Pigeons were required to distinguish between the two arrays of items in which the level of difficulty was varied. Pigeons were provided with an “Information” button and a “Go” button on some trials that they could increase the number of items in the arrays to make the discrimination easier or they can prompt to make responses by pecking the Go button. Castro and Wasserman found that the more difficult the task, the more often pigeons chose the information button to solve the discrimination task. This behavioral pattern indicated that pigeons could evaluate the difficulty of the task internally and actively search for information when is necessary.