Chapter 8 Self Recognition and Self Awareness Two common mirror tests for self awareness o Mirror test aka mirror recognition test or mirror self recognition test o Mirror mark test Developed by Gordon Gallup Jr in 1970 Mirror mark test is considered a measure of self awareness o Primates and the mirror mark test Works in Human children Common chimpanzees Bonobos Orangutans Gorillas Mirror mark test in bottlenose dolphins In sea life park in Hawaii 1 way mirror with video for recording dolphin s behavior from front Concave window with video camera for recording from the side Flat window with TV screen and adjacent camera for real time self view dolphin can see TV screen through window Positioning itself to look at the mark on its side Trainers switch sides for marks sometimes add no mark Control conditions o Mirror was available but the animals were not o Animals were no marked and there was no marked mirror available o Animals exposed to unfamiliar dolphins through metal grate under varying conditions Raters agreed that on the 1st mark test o 3 out of 5 definitely examined the mark o 1 of 5 probably examined the mark o 1 of 5 possibly examined the mark television test real time self view vs playback mode o dolphins produced rhythmic movements and appeared to open their mouths to look inside in the real time but not in playback mode Television test real time self view mark test o Movements and positioning so as to see the mark were 3x more frequent in real time than in playback mode Conclusions o Dolphins appear to recognize themselves in a mirror or TV image o Dolphins can distinguish real time television images from playback images o Bottlenose dolphins pass the mirror mark test o Mirror Mark Test in Elephants Elephants can recognize their own reflection Looked in mirror saw somethig strange on head and touched it o Mirror Test in Capuchin Monkeys 2005 Fran de Waal and colleagues at Emory University Familiar and unfamiliar monkeys of the same sex or a mirror Results Females interesting in monkey in mirror not fully recognizing self in mirror but act differently toward mirror than toward other female monkeys flirt with them and exhibit positive behavior Males treat monkey much more like a different monkey In between stage don t fully pass test o The mirror mark test in pigeons Epstein Lanza and Skinner Challenge mirror mark test Train pigeon to peck spot at a wall to get grain Moved spot around to back wall Must peck spot on back wall not spot on mirror Must peck spot on body Placed bib on pigeon so it could not see the spot then placed the mirror must peck the spot on body Succeeded in this task If a pigeon can recognize itself in the mirror what does that say about self awareness o Questions regarding the value of the mirror mark test Other senses Eye contact as threatening Explicit training Does passing the mirror mark test really imply consciousness Theory of mind and self awareness o Concept introduced by Premack and Woodruff 1978 o Suggested an ape or person with a theory of mind is able to imput mental states to itself and others States intentions beliefs knowledge lack of knowledge and positive or negative emotions o Notion is now applied to other animals o Social Cognition Deception Dennett s Idea of orders of intentionality 1st order believe food is behind a tree no theory of 2nd order belief about what another animal has in its mind needed mind theory of mind 3rd order knowledge about another animal s knowledge 4th order and on goes the same Deception creating a false belief at one level of representation Monkey one plants idea in monkey 2 that there is no food behind the tree and gets to keep it to itself Machiavellian in monkeys do selfish deeds to fulfill own needs Evidence that great apes do this but not much of this deception in monkeys Evidence of Deception in Chimpanzees Menxel 1978 o One chimp was shown the location of food in an open field picked up and carried around o Chimp taken back to building then all chimps go out in the field at once o Chimp that knew the food s location would take off and others would follow him he s have to give it up o After several trials the chimp learned to take off in the wrong direction let group get ahead and then run to where the food is Most evidence is anecdotal weak for deception Cooperative vs Competitive Trainer experiment Woodruff and Premack 1979 Four chimps and two trainers that were dressed distinctly o Cooperative friendly helpful in pointing out correct pail of food o Competitive hostile interactions always pointed to wrong pail of food Chimp could point to food o If cooperative trainer gave food o If competitive trainer took food o Animals learned to deceive competitive trainer to get the food Critique Conditional discriminations as Explanations o Celia Hayes 1993 conditioonal discriminations Monkey may have used cues to guide This their responses dress other response dress this response other o Information exchange Implication of theory of mind is that communicators know information has been exchanged between them Monkey 1 causes change in behavior of monkey 2 due to something the 1st ahs communicated then they both know the change in behavior was due to the communication Role reversal experiments Porinelli Nelson and Boysen 1992 Test 4 chimps in same procedure Food in all trays informant can see food operator is only one that can pull handle cannot see food If handle is pulled both chimps got food After role reversal 3 of the chimps continues to perform with no loss in accuracy after switching roles operator informant and informant operator Guesser Knower experiments Theory of mind implies understanding of perceiving and knowing Porinelli Nelson and Boysen 1992 All chimps learned task but monkeys never learned Conditional discrimination again Celia Hayes o Alternative explanation Is this sufficient evidence If not another study must be done Theory of mind says informant know operator does not know where the food is Hayes says informant sees food and through trial and error points to food continues to do this Operator may learn cue of pointing causes reinforcement