Are chimpanzees “stuck” on their “selves” in video?

Vonk, Jennifer

doi:10.3758/s13420-018-0328-z

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…The finding was that the three subjects capable of mirror self-recognition removed stickers placed on their heads more effectively and exhibited more self-directed behaviours than the other two individuals, when shown live and short-delayed video feedback but not when shown long-delayed video footage or other control conditions. Although the study lacked adequate controls ( Vonk, 2018 ), self-recognition from delayed, non-contingent self-images may be the most stringent test that an individual (human or non-human) possesses a visual mental representation of their own appearance, and this appears to require prior experience with mirrors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating self-recognition in bonobos: mirror exposure reduces looking time to self but not unfamiliar conspecifics

Shorland

Genty

Guéry

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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The question of whether animals have some sort of self-awareness is a topic of continued debate. A necessary precondition for self-awareness is the ability to visually discriminate the self from others, which has traditionally been investigated through mirror self-recognition experiments. Although great apes generally pass such experiments, interpretations of results have remained controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate how bonobos (Pan paniscus) respond to different types of images of themselves and others, both before and after prolonged mirror exposure. We first presented presumably mirror-naive subjects with representations of themselves in three different ways (mirror image, contingent and non-contingent video footage) as well as representations of others (video footage of known and unknown conspecifics). We found that subjects paid significantly less attention to contingent images of themselves (mirror image, video footage) than to non-contingent images of themselves and unfamiliar individuals, suggesting they perceived the non-contingent self-images as novel. We then provided subjects with three months of access to a large mirror centrally positioned in the enclosure. Following this manipulation, subjects showed significantly reduced interest in the non-contingent self-images, while interest in unknown individuals remained unchanged, suggesting that the mirror experience has led to a fuller understanding of their own self. We discuss implications of this preliminary investigation for the on-going debate on self-awareness in animals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%