DOI: 10.5061/dryad.hqbzkh1rn
title: Data from: Flexible information-seeking in chimpanzees

description: Humans can flexibly use metacognition to monitor their own knowledge and
 strategically acquire new information when needed. While humans can deploy
 these skills across a variety of contexts, most evidence for metacognition
 in animals has focused on simple situations, such as seeking out
 information about the location of food. Here, we examine the flexibility,
 breadth, and limits of this skill in chimpanzees. We tested
 semi-free-ranging chimpanzees on a novel task where they could seek
 information by standing up to peer into different containers. In Study 1,
 we tested n = 47 chimpanzees to assess if chimpanzees would spontaneously
 engage in information-seeking without prior experience, as well as to
 characterize individual variation in this propensity. We found that many
 chimpanzees engaged in information-seeking with minimal experience, and
 that younger chimpanzees and females were more likely to do so. In two
 subsequent studies, we then further tested chimpanzees who initially
 showed robust information-seeking on new variations of this task, to
 disentangle the cognitive processing shaping their behaviors. In Study 2,
 we examined how a subset of n = 12 chimpanzees applied these skills to
 seek information about the location versus the identity of rewards, and
 found that chimpanzees were equally adept at seeking out location and
 identity information. In Study 3, we examined whether a subset of n = 6
 chimpanzees could apply these skills to make more efficacious decisions
 when faced with uncertainty about reward payoffs. Chimpanzees were able to
 use information-seeking to resolve risk and choose more optimally when
 faced with uncertain payoffs, although they often also engaged in
 information-seeking when it was not strictly necessary. These results
 identify core features of flexible metacognition that chimpanzees share
 with humans, as well as constraints that may represent key evolutionary
 shifts in human cognition.
description: # Data from: Flexible information-seeking in chimpanzees
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hqbzkh1rn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hqbzkh1rn) Study Authors: A.G. Rosati, E. Felsche, M.F. Cole, R. Atencia, & J. Rukundo Contact: [rosati@umich.edu](mailto:rosati@umich.edu) ## Description of the data and file structure This data set consists of three data files (.xlsx format) with trial-by-trial data for the three different experimental studies reported in this work. For each file, there is a detailed key tab in the file defining each specific variable reported in the main data tab and explaining the codes for that variable. As noted in the relevant variables, NAs in these files indicate no relevant score for that specific dependent variable (e.g., if the chimpanzee did not perform a certain response, there is no associated latency measure for their response), or that the specific independent variable coded in the column was not relevant for that trial. The specific files are: *1. DATA Rosati et al Chimpanzee Information-Seeking Study 1.* This file comprises the trial-by-trial data for the first study examining spontaneous information-seeking in chimpanzees. *2. DATA Rosati et al Chimpanzee Information-Seeking Study 2.* This file comprises the trial-by-trial data for the second study examining information-seeking in chimpanzees for location versus identity information. *3. DATA Rosati et al Chimpanzee Information-Seeking Study 3.* This file comprises the trial-by-trial data for the third study examining information-seeking in chimpanzees when faced with uncertainty.