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Human intelligence includes a sense of knowing. The first aim of the current report is to clarify this ‘feeling of knowing’ and to show how an evolutionary analysis reveals its significance for human intelligence. The second aim is then to circumscribe its possible origins in humans, and thereby provide a framework for more detailed computational and biological work to (a) determine exactly how it emerges and influences human intelligence, and in turn, (b) model it for integration in artificial systems. Four key considerations led to critical insights. First, the need-sensation-cognition-action cycle components are tightly coupled, such that, for example, need and action selection influence perception and thinking. Second, the tight coupling remains at all levels of the human mind and brain, with affect (or feeling) providing the overall organizational structure. Third, at the highest levels of the human brain, the affective-emotional-subjective influences are elaborated into higher-level versions, producing the feeling of knowing. Fourth, the many possible sources that produce emergent subjective experience are considered, which together construct a framework and roadmap for future work. The insights obtained here suggest how significant progress can be made toward understanding the feeling of knowing and reproducing it in artificial systems.