Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 47, Issue 4, April 1994, Pages 909-919
Animal Behaviour

Regular Article
Reflections on self-recognition in primates

https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1994.1123Get rights and content

Abstract

Abstract. Evidence that apes touch head marks more in the presence of a mirror than in its absence have been taken to indicate that, unlike monkeys, they are capable of self-recognition and have a self-concept. Both of these conclusions are challenged. First, variance in mark-touching behaviour may be due, not to mirror-presence, but to the effects of anaesthetic recovery on species with a high baseline frequency of self-directed behaviour. Second, evidence of species differences in mirror-guided body inspection could not be explained in terms of the presence or absence of a self-concept. Since monkeys can avoid colliding with objects, they must possess the only kind of self-concept necessary for mirror-guided body inspection; i.e. the capacity to discriminate feedback from other sensory input. Rather than implying a self-concept, mirror-guided body inspection involves the use of novel, displaced visual feedback to guide action.

References (0)

Cited by (140)

  • Mechanisms of copying, social learning, and imitation in animals

    2022, Learning and Motivation
    Citation Excerpt :

    When one organism matches or copies the behavior of another, because of the widespread finding of matching behavior across species it has attracted the attention of ethologists, behavior ecologists, anthropologists, and psychologists (Heyes, 1994; Heyes, & Galef Jr., 1996; Huber et al., 2009; Hoppitt & Laland, 2008; Galef & Giraldeau, 2001; Leadbeater & Chittka, 2009; Piaget, 1962; Schuster, Wohl, Griebsch, & Klostermeier, 2006; Shettleworth, 1998; Whiten & Ham, 1992; Whiten, Horner, & de Waal, 2005; Wilkinson, Kuenstner, Mueller, & Huber, 2014).

  • An evolutionary view of self-awareness

    2022, Behavioural Processes
    Citation Excerpt :

    Methodological issues have been raised in relation to the test. For example, the MSR test sometimes yields inconsistent results in humans of different ages, depending on the context (Kartner et al., 2012), and has thus been criticized for not being a universal (Broesch et al., 2011) and reliable method to assess self-awareness (Heyes, 1994, 1995; Rochat and Zahavi, 2011). In addition, many animals, e.g. aquatic species, cannot reach the mark because they do not have the necessary ability to do so, making the evidence harder to interpret.

  • Cephalopods: Ambassadors for rethinking cognition

    2021, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
  • Azure-winged magpies fail to understand the principle of mirror imaging

    2020, Behavioural Processes
    Citation Excerpt :

    The mirror self-recognition (MSR) paradigm has emerged as a standard method for evaluating self-awareness in many species since the pioneering work by Gallup (Gallup, 1970), although numerous researchers have debated whether animals that show MSR possess human-like self-awareness (Heyes, 1994, 1995; Bard et al., 2006).

  • Fronto-temporoparietal connectivity and self-awareness in 18-month-olds: A resting state fNIRS study

    2019, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
    Citation Excerpt :

    In the current study, we addressed this challenge by asking whether a functional network of brain regions –the so-called default mode network which is commonly thought to be involved in psychological or cognitive self-related processing in adults – is associated with MSR in infancy. Specifically, we hypothesized that if the MSR task reflects self-related processing (Bischof-Köhler, 2012; Howe et al., 1993) and not merely recognition of the physical self (Heyes, 1994), or a matching of seen and felt movements (Mitchell, 1993a,b), then resting-state activity in regions comprising the DMN – thought to reflect self-related processing in adults - might be expected to be higher in those toddlers who do recognize themselves in the mirror, compared with those who do not show evidence of mirror self-recognition. Our findings support this hypothesis and suggest that fronto-temporoparietal connectivity is associated with self-recognition in infancy, suggesting that this measure might be considered as a possible neural marker for the development of the sense of self in early development.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text