Spontaneous behavior of a rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) during memory tests suggests memory awareness

Abstract

Humans can predict with some accuracy whether or not they know the correct answer to a question before responding. In some cases the capacity to make such predictions depends on memory awareness, the ability to introspectively discriminate between knowing and not knowing. In this unplanned retrospective analysis of video taped behavior we asked whether a rhesus monkey's apparent frustration predicted his accuracy in a matching-to-sample task on a trial-by-trial basis. The monkey was likely to aggressively strike the computer touchscreen when committing errors, whereas he generally touched the screen more gently when selecting the correct stimulus. This difference in behavior, which occurred before the monkey received feedback on the accuracy of his choice, suggests that he knew whether or not he remembered the correct response.