In 1970, biological psychologist Gordon Gallup invented the mirror test to assess the self-awareness of animals. More specifically, when animals are in front of a mirror, can they visually recognize themselves? Gallup hypothesized that if an animal can distinguish itself in a mirror, then it has the ability to recognize itself. Steps of
experiment
First, the animal to be tested will be anesthetized first. Then, under anesthesia, mark a place on the animal's body. This mark can be anything, including stickers or drawings. However, the mark should be in a place that is difficult for animals to see, because then they can only find the mark through a mirror. For example, when we perform a mirror test on a chimpanzee, we cannot put the mark on its arm because it can find the mark without looking in the mirror. Generally speaking, the mark is often placed on the face.
When the animal wakes up from anesthesia, a mirror is placed in front of it. If the animal touches or checks the mark on its body in any way, then it passes this test. According to Gallup, this means that the animal knows that it looks like itself in the mirror, not another animal.
Animals that passed the mirror test
As of now, we know animals that have passed the mirror test: dolphins, orcas, some elephants and some birds. It should also be noted here that although a dog cannot pass the mirror test naturally, it can eventually pass under human training. When they see the mirror, they react differently and seem to be interested in reflection. The
mirror test may not be the most accurate test, and it has received a lot of criticism, but it was an important assumption when it was born. With the continuous development of research, we will have a deeper understanding of the self-awareness of non-human animals.
's criticism of the experiment
's initial criticism of the test was that it could produce false negatives. Because many animals do not rely mainly on vision, which means that they are not vision-oriented. For example, the dogs mentioned above, their sense of smell and hearing are very sensitive, and they regard direct eye contact as an attack signal, so this may cause it not to observe the dog in the mirror.
Secondly, many animals react very quickly when they see the mirror image, and they regard the mirror image as a potential threat. For example, when some animals suddenly see a mirror, their instinctive reaction is to run away immediately and not observe at all, so false negatives may occur. For a smart animal like a primate, it may take time to consider the meaning of mirroring.
In addition, some markings may not be enough to attract the attention of animals. In a test of three elephants, only one found its own mark. Researchers believe that they just don't care much about markings or are not interested in contact markings.
One of the biggest criticisms of this test is that just because an animal can recognize itself in a mirror does not necessarily mean that the animal is self-aware.
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