[CAT] Passing the mirror test?
Jul. 13th, 2009 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldWikipedia's description of the mirror test, used to gauge consciousness, is as good as anybody's.
Shakespeare was looking in a mirror here, and it did seem at the time that he was reacting to his own image. Of course, that's likely a misperception, since cats apparently can't respond to it although there have been suggestions that it's improperly geared for animals which don't make use of sight as their main sense. With Shakespeare's, though, I wonder if it's not so much a question of cats being incapable of passing the test as cats being unwilling to try to.
The mirror test is a measure of self-awareness developed by Gordon Gallup Jr. in 1970, that was based in part on observations made by Charles Darwin. While visiting a zoo, Darwin held a mirror up to an orangutan and recorded the animal's reaction, which included making a series of facial expressions. Darwin noted that the significance of these expressions was ambiguous, and could either signify that the primate was making expressions at what it perceived to be another animal, or it could be playing a sort of game with a new toy. There are 9 species that pass the mirror test, including magpies and elephants but mostly primates. Most human babies do not pass the mirror test until several months of age.
Gordon Gallup built on these observations by devising a test that attempts to gauge self-awareness by determining whether an animal can recognize its own reflection in a mirror as an image of itself. This is accomplished by surreptitiously marking the animal with two odourless dye spots. The test spot is on a part of the animal that would be visible in front of a mirror, while the control spot is in an accessible but hidden part of the animal's body. Scientists observe if the animal reacts in a manner consistent with it being aware that the test dye is located on its own body while ignoring the control dye. Such behaviour might include turning and adjusting of the body in order to better view the marking in the mirror, or poking at the marking on its own body with a limb while viewing the mirror.
At first, even animals that are capable of passing the mirror test respond as the orangutan described by Darwin. In fact, young children and people who have been blind from birth but have their sight restored initially react as if their reflection in the mirror was another person.
Shakespeare was looking in a mirror here, and it did seem at the time that he was reacting to his own image. Of course, that's likely a misperception, since cats apparently can't respond to it although there have been suggestions that it's improperly geared for animals which don't make use of sight as their main sense. With Shakespeare's, though, I wonder if it's not so much a question of cats being incapable of passing the test as cats being unwilling to try to.
