Mirror test
The mirror test—sometimes called the mark test, mirror self-recognition (MSR) test, red spot technique, or rouge test—is a behavioral technique developed in 1970 by American psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. to determine whether an animal possesses the ability of visual self-recognition.
[2][3] Studies have challenged Gallup's results;[2] others have found that animals can be self-aware in ways not measured by the test, such as distinguishing between their own and others' songs and scents.
While visiting the London Zoo in 1838, Darwin observed an orangutan named Jenny throwing a tantrum after being teased with an apple by her keeper.
[6] In 1970, Gordon Gallup Jr. experimentally investigated the possibility of self-recognition with two male and two female wild preadolescent chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), none of which had presumably seen a mirror previously.
Gallup expanded the study by manipulating the chimpanzees' appearance and observing their reaction to their reflection in the mirror.
Gallup anesthetized the chimps and then painted a red alcohol-soluble dye on the eyebrow ridge and the top half of the opposite ear.
After regaining full consciousness, he recorded the frequency with which the chimps spontaneously touched the marked areas of skin.
[7] If the creature stares unusually long at the part of its body with the mark or tries to rub it off, then it is said to pass the test.
[citation needed] The rouge test was also done by Michael Lewis and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn in 1979 for the purpose of self-recognition with human mothers and their children.
[12][4][13] Humans have been determined by biologists to have some of the best eyesight amongst animals, exceeding the overwhelming majority in daylight settings, though a few species have better.
With this in mind, biologist Marc Bekoff developed a scent-based paradigm using dog urine to test self-recognition in canines.
[16] Dog cognition researcher Alexandra Horowitz formalized Bekoff's idea in a controlled experiment, first reported in 2016[17] and published in 2017.
[25] Similarly, lesser apes infrequently engage in self-grooming, which may explain their failure to touch a mark on their heads in the mirror test.
[27] Several studies using a wide range of species have investigated the occurrence of spontaneous, mark-directed behavior when given a mirror, as originally proposed by Gallup.
Most marked animals given a mirror initially respond with social behavior, such as aggressive displays, and continue to do so during repeated testing.
Even in chimpanzees, the species most studied and with the most convincing findings, clear-cut evidence of self-recognition is not obtained in all individuals tested.
[79] Another study published in 2009 documents 12 cases of spontaneous self-recognition in front of the mirror by a pair of siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus).
[83] Rhesus macaques have been observed to use mirrors to study otherwise-hidden parts of their bodies, such as their genitals and implants in their heads.
[89] Two captive giant manta rays showed frequent, unusual and repetitive movements in front of a mirror, suggesting contingency checking.
In 2016, Csilla Ari tested captive manta rays at the Atlantis Aquarium in the Bahamas by exposing them to a mirror.
Researchers showed this by testing the archerfish, which spit a stream of water at an image of a face when they recognized it.
The children are then placed in front of a mirror and their reactions are monitored; depending on the child's development, distinct categories of responses are demonstrated.
[94][95][96] There is criticism that passing a rouge test may be culturally motivated, and that what is commonly thought about mirror self-recognition actually applies only to children of Western countries.
For example, a Cameroonian Nso sample of infants 18 to 20 months of age had an extremely low amount of self-recognition outcomes at 3.2%.
[100][101][102] Animals,[12] young children,[103] and people who have gained sight after being blind from birth,[15] sometimes react to their reflection in the mirror as though it were another individual.
[104] Current views of the self in psychology position the self as playing an integral part in human motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity.
