Oct 24, 2019 03:34 PM
https://aeon.co/essays/what-can-the-mirr...in-animals
EXCERPT: . . . Many animals behave in a similar manner the first time they see themselves in a mirror. [...] Even human children under the age of two don’t initially recognise their reflections; like most other species, they react as if seeing another child, one who seems bent on playing a novel form of hide-and-seek. ... Although scientists don’t yet know where self-awareness resides in the brain or how firing neurons give rise to an ‘I’, they do agree that it is essential to our mental complexity and to becoming empathetic. It’s the mental feeling of being an ‘I’, a separate individual with a running narrative of all you’re doing, have done and will do in the future. Self-awareness also enables humans to model mentally the minds of others, a skill that’s key to a range of social strategies from sympathy to deception.
Self-awareness is not, however, the same as being conscious – which is commonly defined as being aware of one’s body and surrounding environment, a mental trait many animals share with us. Indeed in 2012, a prominent international group of neuroscientists, ethologists and psychologists issued what’s been called ‘The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness’. It asserted that
"Convergent evidence indicates that nonhuman animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviours. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates."
But being conscious of one’s body does not mean that an animal also has a capacity for introspection – a key part of being self-aware. While consciousness is being aware of one’s body, self-awareness takes the sensation one step further – you recognise that you are aware of your awareness. Surely other animals possess this sensation and are socially adept? [...] How can we test for this mental ability? Is there a way to glimpse self-awareness in our minds and those of other animals? Perhaps. Using the mirror self-recognition (MSR) test, scientists have established that chimpanzees and orangutans, at least, are self-aware. ... Nearly 50 years after Gordon Gallup published his groundbreaking paper describing this test, it’s come to be regarded as the gold standard for assessing self-awareness. It’s been administered to dozens of other species ... Even a robot.
And while some contend that certain species, such as dolphins, elephants and European magpies, have passed, Gallup disagrees. ‘I do have an open mind, and am not against other species, but none has succeeded so far,’ he says. To him, this is an indication that the test reveals a clear dividing line between animals with minds and those that are mindless. However, a growing number of scientists say that the fault lies not with the animals, but with the test. Its strict exclusionary conclusion is out of step with today’s evolutionary approach to animal cognition, they say. As Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University in Georgia, puts it: ‘Complex cognitive capacities evolve bottom-up in small incremental steps from more basic traits shared across a wide range of species.’ Like other cognitive talents such as language, our self-awareness almost certainly didn’t appear out of the blue; there must be signs of some aspects of it in other species. But as currently administered, the test – and Gallup, its primary evaluator – is unforgiving. Since it’s designed for animals that rely on their visual sense and have hands, very few can pass it.
‘Honestly, the test sucks,’ says Alex Jordan, an evolutionary biologist [...] ‘The mirror test was never ideal or wholly adequate; it’s just our best attempt so far,’ agrees Alexandra Horowitz ... ‘To find out what’s really going on in an animal’s mind, you have to consider their naturalistic behaviours and what’s important to them,’ she explains. ‘For dogs, that would be scent. They learn about other dogs by smelling their rear ends, so I took the key elements from Gallup’s test and adjusted it for dogs...’
[...] Since publishing his study, Gallup and others have tested various animals, from more primates to chickens. But, according to Gallup, only orangutans and chimpanzees have successfully passed. Why? Gallup suspects it’s because most animals lack the ability ‘to conceive of themselves’, as he wrote in Scientific American in 1998. And since they do not have a sense of an ‘I’, they cannot understand that they are looking at themselves when they see their reflection in a mirror.
Why does this matter? ‘There’s no obvious adaptive value to being able to recognise yourself in a mirror,’ says Gallup. In other words, it’s not like having a beautiful singing voice or an ability to locate calorie-rich foods – skills that will likely help you secure a mate and pass on your genes. Instead, he argues, it’s indicative of a rare and rich mental life, of having a mind. ‘If you can do it, it means you can become the object of your own attention,’ Gallup explains. ‘You can think about yourself and your past, present and future experiences – and comparable experiences in other people. It means that you recognise that other people have minds, and wants and desires. That leads to the abilities to empathise and deceive’ – talents that some regard as the capstones of social cognition.
Gallup’s mirror test results drew a line separating humans and two closely related primate species from the rest of the animal kingdom. But, increasingly, cognitive scientists reject the idea of a strict mental divide between humans, apes and all other animals, particularly when many species demonstrate other highly intelligent behaviours, often of a social nature. [...] de Waal argues that ‘all animals need a self-concept’. Monkeys, for instance, must know their own weight before leaping onto a tree branch, and be aware of their physical fitness and strength before fighting another monkey. And most – perhaps all – animals need to know something about themselves, their fellows, and their role in their societies in order to get along.
[...] We also still have much to learn about how human children perceive their reflected images. Scientists have recently discovered that children in Fiji and Kenya don’t recognise their mirrored selves at age two, as Western children normally do, or even at age six. ... When told they were looking at themselves, the Kenyan and Fijian children reacted with silence, researchers reported in 2010. That’s likely because non-Western children are raised to think of themselves as part of a group, the scientists explained. When they saw themselves in a mirror with a small yellow post-it note on their foreheads – which made them look different from their friends – they did not touch or rub it. Instead, they were quiet and stunned. They were used to being told what to do, the scientists said, and expected to learn by watching rather than by asking questions, and they simply did not know what an acceptable response might be.
[...] So does the mirror test actually reveal anything about our mental complexity and sense of self-awareness? ... Lori Marino, a neuroscientist ... thinks so, and remains an advocate. Since ‘self-awareness is not a very tractable phenomenon’, it’s difficult for us to ‘create probes and tests’ that are easy to administer and understand, says Marino. The mirror test ‘does capture something that is related to self-awareness and may be the best “objective” measure we have. But I don’t think it’s tapping into some overly romanticised property present in some animals and absent in others.’ (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: . . . Many animals behave in a similar manner the first time they see themselves in a mirror. [...] Even human children under the age of two don’t initially recognise their reflections; like most other species, they react as if seeing another child, one who seems bent on playing a novel form of hide-and-seek. ... Although scientists don’t yet know where self-awareness resides in the brain or how firing neurons give rise to an ‘I’, they do agree that it is essential to our mental complexity and to becoming empathetic. It’s the mental feeling of being an ‘I’, a separate individual with a running narrative of all you’re doing, have done and will do in the future. Self-awareness also enables humans to model mentally the minds of others, a skill that’s key to a range of social strategies from sympathy to deception.
Self-awareness is not, however, the same as being conscious – which is commonly defined as being aware of one’s body and surrounding environment, a mental trait many animals share with us. Indeed in 2012, a prominent international group of neuroscientists, ethologists and psychologists issued what’s been called ‘The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness’. It asserted that
"Convergent evidence indicates that nonhuman animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviours. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates."
But being conscious of one’s body does not mean that an animal also has a capacity for introspection – a key part of being self-aware. While consciousness is being aware of one’s body, self-awareness takes the sensation one step further – you recognise that you are aware of your awareness. Surely other animals possess this sensation and are socially adept? [...] How can we test for this mental ability? Is there a way to glimpse self-awareness in our minds and those of other animals? Perhaps. Using the mirror self-recognition (MSR) test, scientists have established that chimpanzees and orangutans, at least, are self-aware. ... Nearly 50 years after Gordon Gallup published his groundbreaking paper describing this test, it’s come to be regarded as the gold standard for assessing self-awareness. It’s been administered to dozens of other species ... Even a robot.
And while some contend that certain species, such as dolphins, elephants and European magpies, have passed, Gallup disagrees. ‘I do have an open mind, and am not against other species, but none has succeeded so far,’ he says. To him, this is an indication that the test reveals a clear dividing line between animals with minds and those that are mindless. However, a growing number of scientists say that the fault lies not with the animals, but with the test. Its strict exclusionary conclusion is out of step with today’s evolutionary approach to animal cognition, they say. As Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University in Georgia, puts it: ‘Complex cognitive capacities evolve bottom-up in small incremental steps from more basic traits shared across a wide range of species.’ Like other cognitive talents such as language, our self-awareness almost certainly didn’t appear out of the blue; there must be signs of some aspects of it in other species. But as currently administered, the test – and Gallup, its primary evaluator – is unforgiving. Since it’s designed for animals that rely on their visual sense and have hands, very few can pass it.
‘Honestly, the test sucks,’ says Alex Jordan, an evolutionary biologist [...] ‘The mirror test was never ideal or wholly adequate; it’s just our best attempt so far,’ agrees Alexandra Horowitz ... ‘To find out what’s really going on in an animal’s mind, you have to consider their naturalistic behaviours and what’s important to them,’ she explains. ‘For dogs, that would be scent. They learn about other dogs by smelling their rear ends, so I took the key elements from Gallup’s test and adjusted it for dogs...’
[...] Since publishing his study, Gallup and others have tested various animals, from more primates to chickens. But, according to Gallup, only orangutans and chimpanzees have successfully passed. Why? Gallup suspects it’s because most animals lack the ability ‘to conceive of themselves’, as he wrote in Scientific American in 1998. And since they do not have a sense of an ‘I’, they cannot understand that they are looking at themselves when they see their reflection in a mirror.
Why does this matter? ‘There’s no obvious adaptive value to being able to recognise yourself in a mirror,’ says Gallup. In other words, it’s not like having a beautiful singing voice or an ability to locate calorie-rich foods – skills that will likely help you secure a mate and pass on your genes. Instead, he argues, it’s indicative of a rare and rich mental life, of having a mind. ‘If you can do it, it means you can become the object of your own attention,’ Gallup explains. ‘You can think about yourself and your past, present and future experiences – and comparable experiences in other people. It means that you recognise that other people have minds, and wants and desires. That leads to the abilities to empathise and deceive’ – talents that some regard as the capstones of social cognition.
Gallup’s mirror test results drew a line separating humans and two closely related primate species from the rest of the animal kingdom. But, increasingly, cognitive scientists reject the idea of a strict mental divide between humans, apes and all other animals, particularly when many species demonstrate other highly intelligent behaviours, often of a social nature. [...] de Waal argues that ‘all animals need a self-concept’. Monkeys, for instance, must know their own weight before leaping onto a tree branch, and be aware of their physical fitness and strength before fighting another monkey. And most – perhaps all – animals need to know something about themselves, their fellows, and their role in their societies in order to get along.
[...] We also still have much to learn about how human children perceive their reflected images. Scientists have recently discovered that children in Fiji and Kenya don’t recognise their mirrored selves at age two, as Western children normally do, or even at age six. ... When told they were looking at themselves, the Kenyan and Fijian children reacted with silence, researchers reported in 2010. That’s likely because non-Western children are raised to think of themselves as part of a group, the scientists explained. When they saw themselves in a mirror with a small yellow post-it note on their foreheads – which made them look different from their friends – they did not touch or rub it. Instead, they were quiet and stunned. They were used to being told what to do, the scientists said, and expected to learn by watching rather than by asking questions, and they simply did not know what an acceptable response might be.
[...] So does the mirror test actually reveal anything about our mental complexity and sense of self-awareness? ... Lori Marino, a neuroscientist ... thinks so, and remains an advocate. Since ‘self-awareness is not a very tractable phenomenon’, it’s difficult for us to ‘create probes and tests’ that are easy to administer and understand, says Marino. The mirror test ‘does capture something that is related to self-awareness and may be the best “objective” measure we have. But I don’t think it’s tapping into some overly romanticised property present in some animals and absent in others.’ (MORE - details)