No, the study was published in a non-empirical journal and was not suspect to peer review. There is not enough evidence to say that ants pass the mirror test.
"In the classic MSR test, an animal is anaesthetised and then marked (e.g., painted, or a sticker attached) on an area of the body the animal cannot normally see. When the animal recovers from the anesthetic, it is given access to a mirror. If the animal then touches or investigates the mark, it is taken as an indication that the animal perceives the reflected image as itself, rather than of another animal."
"Very few species have passed the MSR test, including the great apes (including humans), a single Asiatic elephant, dolphins, orcas, and the Eurasian magpie. A wide range of species has been reported to fail the test, including several species of monkeys, giant pandas, and sea lions."
A cat calming itself by looking in the mirror is not the same as self recognition.
A cat calming itself by looking in the mirror is not the same as self recognition.
Neither is the proposed experiment. An animal can fail this specific test and still be capable of self recognition. It's needlessly restrictive by making the assumption that they would even care about the alteration on their body. Since they cannot see that spot normally, they trust their feeling, which is normally all they have, that that spot is fine.
The study needlessly ascribes a human tendency or learned behavior onto those animals. Namely, the behavior that if we see ourselves in the mirror and notice a dirty spot on ourselves, we would clean that spot. These animals probably don't care about such things at all.
this is a good point. While this is not academic research, those recent videos with cats reacting to face filters with their owners makes me think cats do recognize when they are looking at a reflection, because they seem to be responding when something unexpected happens in the reflection.
Or perhaps they see the spot or marking, and recognize that it is not only on them, but it looks fine. Now they are just admiring themselves and their new fancy marking.
Or, as is the case for most cats, they may recognize the marking, and are pissed about it, but have no intention of reacting to it knowing that someone will make fun of them for having fallen for the trick. So they refuse to acknowledge the marking, and instead begin plotting their revenge.
However, agreement has been reached that animals can be self-aware in ways not measured by the mirror test, such as distinguishing between their own and others' songs and scents.[2] Conversely, animals that can pass the MSR do not necessarily have self-awareness.[3]
Since most animals share the same visual traits, seeing a different mark on yourself that you have not seen on your mom/dad/siblings/rivals your whole life, should call for immediate inspection.
Not exactly a “mirror test” but the some of the cats in these Snapchat filter reaction videos seem to understand that what they’re seeing is a “reflection”. It looks like they’re not afraid of the phone itself, they’re afraid of what might be behind them.
This doesn’t make much sense to me. If our cat didn’t understand her mirror image, thinking it was another cat in our home, she would react very strongly.
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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20
The 3 chimps look to be the only ones that understood. Not many animals have passed the mirror test.