A tale of two comparative psychologies: Reply to commentaries

Animal metacognition is a growing area in comparative psychology that raises questions about the evolutionary emergence of reflective mind and self-awareness. Theoretical discussions are constructive as this area develops. We thank the editor for arranging this dialogue and the commentators for contributing to it. The dialogue reveals the strong consensus that one must look beyond associationism to understand animal metacognition. The target article and the commentaries focused on cognitive process and representation, and on detailed cognitive analyses of metacognitive phenomena. Accordingly, this theoretical dialogue presents the possible outline of a new phase of animal-metacognition research.