http://sciencethatmatters.com hosting cognitive dissidents since 2007 Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:25:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://sciencethatmatters.com/archives/15 http://sciencethatmatters.com/archives/15#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:58:05 +0000 aaronsw http://sciencethatmatters.com/archives/15 Rats were given a choice. They could take a test where, if they succeeded, they were given a large reward and if they failed no reward. Or they could decline the test and receive a guaranteed small reward. When the test was easy, rats took it and got the big reward. But when it was hard, they declined. And, indeed, when they were not given the option of declining, they did poorly on the hard test. So rats accurately know when they don’t know something. Someone page Donald Rumsfeld.

• The study (sub. req.)
• Write-up in AAAS’s ScienceNOW
• The study: Metacognition in the Rat [PDF]

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