DOI: 10.5061/dryad.mgqnk9999
title: Data from: Early emergence of metacognition in rhesus monkeys

description: Metacognition, or monitoring and controlling one’s knowledge, is a key
 feature of human cognition. Accumulating evidence shows that foundational
 forms of metacognition are already present in young infants and then
 scaffold later-emerging skills. While many animals exhibit cognitive
 processes relevant to metacognition, it is unclear if other species share
 the developmental trajectories found in human development. Here, we
 examine the emergence of metacognitive information-seeking in rhesus
 monkeys (Macaca mulatta). We presented a large sample of semi-free-ranging
 monkeys, ranging from juvenility to adulthood, with a one-shot task where
 they could seek information about a food reward by bending down to peer
 into a center vantage point in an array of tubes. In the hidden condition,
 information-seeking was necessary as no food was visible on the apparatus,
 whereas in the visible control condition information-seeking was not
 necessary to detect the location of the reward. Monkeys sought information
 at the center vantage point more often when it was necessary than in the
 control condition, and younger monkeys already showed competency similar
 to adults. We also tracked additional monkeys who voluntarily chose not to
 approach to assess monkeys’ ability to actively infer opportunities for
 information-seeking, and similarly found similar performance in juveniles
 and adults. Finally, we found that monkeys were overall slower to make
 metacognitive inferences than to approach known rewards, and that younger
 monkeys were specifically slower to detect opportunities for
 information-seeking compared to adults. These results indicate that many
 features of mature metacognition are already detectable in young monkeys,
 paralleling evidence for ‘core metacognition’ in infant humans.
description: # Data from: Early emergence of metacognition in rhesus monkeys Dataset
 DOI: [10.5061/dryad.mgqnk9999](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mgqnk9999)
 Study Authors: Yiyun Huang & Alexandra G. Rosati Correspondence to:
 [rosati@umich.edu](mailto:rosati@umich.edu) ### **Description of the
 data** This data set consists of one file (.xlsx format) with the data
 from this study. The file includes a data tab with all the data from the
 task. This includes the demographic characteristics of monkeys that
 participated in the task (e.g., their age and sex); the experimental
 condition the monkey was assigned to (hidden versus visible baiting, and
 right or left side baiting); and their responses in the task (did they
 search; if they did search the apparatus where did they do so; and the
 latency and other qualities of their search). Blank values indicate that a
 particular response measure was not applicable to that monkey. Finally,
 the file includes key tab where all the variables reported in the main
 data tab are defined (also appended below). ### Files and variables ####
 File: Huang\_Rosati\_Rhesus\_Metacognition.xlsx **Description:** Data from
 the experimental task. ##### Variables | Variable Name | Description | |
 :----------------------- |
 :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Subject | A unique code identifying each monkey | | Sex | The monkey's sex (M = male, F = female) | | Age | The monkey's age in years | | Condition | Condition assignment (Hidden baiting versus Visible baiting) | | BaitedSide | Which side was baited on the apparatus? (L = left, R = right) | | Search | Did the monkey search the apparatus? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | FirstLocation | The first location the monkey searched, if they did so (C = center, L = left, R = right) | | FirstLatency | The latency for the first search (in seconds) | | LookYN | Did the monkey look inside at least one tube? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | TouchYN | Did the monkey touch the apparatus? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | ApproachYN | Did the monkey closely approach the apparatus? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | Center\_CheckBoth | If the monkey looked in the center first, did they visibly check both tubes? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | SecondLocation | The second location the monkey searched, if they did so (C = center, L = left, R = right) | | Second\_LookYN | Did the monkey look inside at least one tube on the second search? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | Second\_TouchYN | Did the monkey touch the apparatus on the second search? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | Second\_ApproachYN | Did the monkey closely approach the apparatus on the second search? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | Second\_CenterCheck | If the monkey looked in the center second, did they visibly check both tubes? (1 = yes, 0 = no) | | Second\_CenterLook\_tube | Which tube did they look into, if they did not look into both from the center position? (could be baited or unbaited tube; this note only applied if the monkey did ever look into a tube such that variable Second\_LookYN = 1; it was center tube search such that variable SecondLocation = C; and the monkey did not look into both tubes such that Second\_CenterCheck = 0) |