Pictorial Competence in Primates: A Cognitive Correlate of Mirror Self-Recognition?

Parron, Carole

doi:10.5772/intechopen.75568

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

References 108 publications

(155 reference statements)

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“…Our results provide clear evidence suggesting that these fish can have a mental image of their face after exposure to a mirror and can distinguish their face from the faces of other individuals. In particular, our finding that cleaner fish react to a marked self-photograph demonstrates compelling evidence that cleaner fish achieve self-recognition in images via a mental image of the self rather than a kinesthetic visual-matching process ( 1 , 3 , 4 , 9 , 10 , 21 ). The current study represents the explicit experimental test of the mechanisms underlying MSR in nonhuman animals ( 4 , 5 , 34 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…Several animals across multiple taxa have demonstrated MSR, yet the mechanism underlying this ability has until now remained unclear. These species that have passed the mirror mark test are typically social species (e.g., some birds, great apes, and elephants), which often need to visually recognize other individuals to maintain stable social groups ( 21 , 39 , 40 ). We speculate that these species also refer to mental images of individual-specific face characteristics to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar individuals and to identify between certain familiar individuals ( 25 , 38 , 39 , 40 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Photographic images are useful tools for testing cognitive mechanisms (i.e., mental image of self-face) and have been utilized in animal studies (e.g., primates, ref. 21 ; fish, refs. 22 – 24 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans

Kohda

Bshary

Kubo

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Some animals have the remarkable capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR), yet any implications for self-awareness remain uncertain and controversial. This is largely because explicit tests of the two potential mechanisms underlying MSR are still lacking: mental image of the self and kinesthetic visual matching. Here, we test the hypothesis that MSR ability in cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus , is associated with a mental image of the self, in particular the self-face, like in humans . Mirror-naive fish initially attacked photograph models of both themselves and unfamiliar strangers. In contrast, after all fish had passed the mirror mark test, fish did not attack their own (motionless) images, but still frequently attacked those of unfamiliar individuals. When fish were exposed to composite photographs, the self-face/unfamiliar body were not attacked, but photographs of unfamiliar face/self-body were attacked, demonstrating that cleaner fish with MSR capacity recognize their own facial characteristics in photographs. Additionally, when presented with self-photographs with a mark placed on the throat, unmarked mirror-experienced cleaner fish demonstrated throat-scraping behaviors. When combined, our results provide clear evidence that cleaner fish recognize themselves in photographs and that the likely mechanism for MSR is associated with a mental image of the self-face, not a kinesthetic visual-matching model. Humans are also capable of having a mental image of the self-face, which is considered an example of private self-awareness. We demonstrate that combining mirror test experiments with photographs has enormous potential to further our understanding of the evolution of cognitive processes and private self-awareness across nonhuman animals.

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