Study: Animals Get Confused Too

ByABC News
December 3, 2003, 11:43 AM

Dec. 4 -- A team of scientists has confirmed what many pet owners think they already know, that some other animals get confused, like humans, and clearly don't know what's going on.

It has been thought for a long time that confusion is a peculiarly human trait that we share with no other animals, except possibly apes. That's an important issue among scientists because confusion reflects the ability to search the brain for the right answer, a form of cognitive self awareness.

But researchers at three universities have found that humans probably don't own the patent to that ability. At least two other species, Rhesus monkeys and the bottlenose dolphin, also turn out to be a bit confused during particularly difficult trials, and their behavior is remarkably similar to the performance of humans who were taking the same trials, according to psychologist David Smith of the University at Buffalo and the university's Center for Cognitive Science, lead author of a report on the research in the December issue of The Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Smith and co-authors Wendy E. Shields, a psychologist at the University of Montana, and David A Washburn of the Language Research Center at Georgia State University, believe their research demonstrates that at least some other species share confusion with humans, but it's not clear how far down the intellectual ladder that goes.

Maybe it includes the family pooch, although there's no scientific evidence of that yet. So far the evidence suggests that some animals, including rats and pigeons, don't have it.

Students vs. Monkeys

"There's a very influential school of thought which says that only apes and humans could possibly have the capacity we are exploring," Smith says. "There's this view that the switch for consciousness and cognitive self awareness only turned on once in evolution, and that was in the line that led to apes and humans."

The researchers had reason to believe that might not be the case, he adds.