On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Rats have a complex form of thought once known only in humans and other primates—specifically, metacognition, or the ability to mull over what one knows. Scientists at the University of Georgia gave rats a choice to either take a test or not. Passing the test resulted in a large food reward, failure yielded nothing, and opting out altogether led to a small reward. The test played noises of various durations that the rats had previously learned to classify as short (lasting two to 3.6 seconds) or long (4.4 to eight seconds). The more difficult it was to gauge the sound length—for instance, if the noise lasted 4.4 seconds—the more often rodents bailed out from the test. The findings, in the March 20 Current Biology, suggest the rats could judge whether they would pass or fail, hinting that metacognition may be more widespread than thought before.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
