Do bees know what they don’t know?

Flickr user Karen Roe

Thinking about thinking, or "metacognition," is no easy feat, since it requires self-awareness and reflection. We humans are masters at monitoring our own thoughts, and we can even assess what—and how much—we don't know about something and use this knowledge to inform our decisions. It's called "uncertainty monitoring," and it's a calculation that our brains often do without us even being aware of it.

It's unclear whether other animals also have this ability. Although there is some good evidence demonstrating metacognition and uncertainty awareness in primates, the extent to which smaller-brained animals can ponder their own cognitive processes is the subject of hot debate in the scientific world.

In this week's issue of PNAS, Clint Perry and Andrew Barron, two Australian researchers, examine uncertainty monitoring in honeybees. Bees are a popular subject for cognitive research, since their brains are relatively simple, and we know quite a bit about how some of their cognitive processes unfold. These reliable little critters are also relatively easy to work with, even outside of the lab.