Hi catt67,
Thank you for a very interesting question. :)
Social Issues Research Centre
http://www.sirc.org/publik/mirror.html
Mirror, mirror - A summary of research findings on body image
"Species
If you were a dog or a cat or a horse you wouldn't realise that the
image was a reflection of yourself. Most animals in this situation
think that they are face to face with another member of their species.
The exception is the great apes - chimps, gorillas and orang-utans are
capable of recognising themselves in the mirror - and of course the
Naked Apes: us.
What's interesting is what the other apes do when presented with a
mirror: they use mirrors to groom themselves, pick food out of their
teeth and make faces at themselves for entertainment - i.e. more or
less the same reactions as us Naked Apes."
=========
Mirror, Mirror -- Who's The Fairest Primate Of Them All?
http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/deanfulltexttopics.cfm?ID=43101&storytype=DeanTopics
"Do you know how animals react when they see their reflections in a mirror?
Well, scientists are giving various animals a mirror test in order to
help discover how they think and so far chimpanzees have scored the
highest marks.
Chimps soon realize that the reflection in the mirror is their own.
Researchers know this because they put brightly colored marks near the
chimps? eyebrows or eyes when they?re asleep and later when the animal
looks in the mirror, they touch the dyed areas right away.
This same test has been tried with other species, but so far only the
chimps, great apes, orangutans and one gorilla (Koko, who was raise by
humans and reads sign language) have shown that they recognize
themselves, according to a report in New Scientist.
Oragutans are particularly good at the mirror test, researcher say,
probably because they?re more closely related to humans than most
other primates.
Other animals look at their reflection in a mirror and react as if
it?s another member of their species. Monkeys, pigeons, parrots,
elephants, ducks, chickens and even fish fall into this category.
I?ve been up to my place in the country and there?s a crow that reacts
to a mirror by whacking at the glass, thinking the image is another
crow.
In case you?re wondering, some animals, such as dogs or cats, aren?t
as visually attuned to things as primates and therefore don?t do well
on mirror tests. They?re largely dependent on their sense of smell and
therefore have little interest in their reflection."
Source: New Scientist, June 17, 2000
=========
An excellent article about cats and mirrors can be found at:
Why do cats ignore their reflections in mirrors
http://www.wiskit.com/marilyn/mirrors.html
=========
Mirrors - Prof. Eric Steinhart (C) 1998
http://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/philosophy/courses/hegel/MIRRORS.HTM
Consciousness:
"Put an animal like a dog or cat in front of a glass mirror. The
animal is conscious; it perceives. It's aware of the image of itself
in the mirror. But it doesn't seem to be the case that dogs and cats
are aware that what they are seeing is an image of themselves. They do
not seem to recognize themselves."
=========
Animal Cognition
http://peace.saumag.edu/faculty/kardas/courses/CS/Student%20Pages/Animal%20Cognition/Animal%20Cognition.html
Dolpins show elements of self awareness when they see themselves in a
mirror or on a television.
Click here for the entire article:
http://www.earthtrust.org/delbook.html
=========
Absence of Mirror Self-Recognition in Two Captive Asian Elephants
http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/ElephantCorner/mirror.htm
"The self-recognition study of two Asian elephants reported here
bypasses the traditional mark test, relying instead on changing the
animal?s appearance by taping a conspicuous object (a bent turkey
feather) to its forehead. In the presence of a mirror, neither
elephant engaged in self-directed behavior nor tried to remove its
feather."
[...]
In a 1989 study of two Asian elephants, Povinelli (1989) reported that
they were capable of a sophisticated form of mirror-guided reaching
behavior, but that they failed the mark test and responded to their
mirror image as if confronted by another elephant (Povinelli, 1989).
Several lines of evidence, however, put this conclusion in doubt:
[...]
"Not all chimpanzees show evidence of mirror self-recognition (Swartz
& Evans, 1991; Anderson, 1996), and Povinelli?s negative results with
elephants may thus be ascribable to his small sample."
[...]
"Recent studies of bottlenose dolphins (Reiss & Marino, 2001) suggest
that the search for mirror self-recognition may be fruitfully extended
beyond primates."
[...]
"Preliminary observations by our group suggest that elephants
outperform chimpanzees in a variation of Povinelli & Eddy?s (1996)
seeing experiments. This surprising observation, taken along with the
assertion that a theory of mind presupposes mirror self-recognition,
makes it worth while to subject the question of self-recognition in
elephants to additional scrutiny."
(read article for more on the experiment and a photo of Winky)
Fig. 1. In the absence or presence of mirrors, Winky often removes a
taped turkey feather from Wanda?s forehead?but never from her own.
=========
Perception
http://www.perceptionweb.com/perc0801/editorial.pdf
"Well known experiments by Gordon Gallup show that children below ten
months of age do not recognise themselves in a mirror, and no animals
except chimpanzees can do so (Gallup 1970). Gallup's experimental
technique is to place a spot of rouge on one side of the face, and
note whether the baby, or an animal, touches its own face or the
mirror. Young babies, and animals except chimps, touch the mirror but
not their face."
=========
ANIMAL STUDIES - How do male fiddler crabs react when they see their
reflection in a mirror?
http://www.el-carmelo.palo-alto.ca.us/staff/Kent/animalsite/table2.html
=========
Animal Intelligence
http://www.pethelp.net/cognit.html
"Research projects with non human primates send the same mixed
message. Monkeys react to a mirror as if they don't understand it is
their own reflection."
[...]
"Some animals ignore their reflection in the mirror after being
exposed to it repeatedly. Non human primates learn to use the mirror
as humans do--to check their reflection and entertain themselves
making faces."
=========
Display Behaviors of Male Betta splendens - Jennifer Beavin
http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/Projects/display_behaviors_of_male_betta_.htm
"Bettas will display their fins in all of their color to a mirror
since they do not recognize their reflections and think it is another
male infringing on their territory. The stretching of the fins and
opening of the gills to display the membrane enables the male to look
twice his resting size and is called flaring, or displaying."
[...]
Experiment
"The aggressive behavior of male Betta splendens will be assessed
using a variety of visual stimuli. A total of six males (3 red and 3
blue) will be kept in separate jars and will be used as the
experimental subjects."
Part 1
"They will be shown a mirror to determine their response behavior when
seeing their own reflections and the sequence of display will be
recorded. The mirror will be shown for 1 minute, then removed for one
minute to allow the fish to calm down, and then repeated for 1
minute."
(see results)
Conclusions
"The most agnostic fish in each color was Red 2 and Blue 1. Both of
these displayed their gill operculum and branchiostegal membrane last
in the mirror test. This could be a fixed action pattern for highly
excitable and protective male Bettas."
=========
http://216.239.63.104/search?q=cache:yz4glPS5hFEJ:www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/fishbertspage/homes.html+bettas+fight+with+a+mirror&hl=en
"There are a couple of other toys (shall we say) that are also
personal favourites of bettas. Mirrors. Male bettas love to flare at
other male bettas, so get them a small mirror and they will spend a
great deal of time puffing themselves up and making themselves look
mean in front of it. Note a mirror should not be a permanent ornament
in the tank. The betta can easily become so occupied by his own
reflection that he forgets to eat. I find that a mirror in there for
an hour or two every day or other days works a treat in keeping the
betta pretty and confident. This is a tried and tested method in
helping bettas achieve confidence, as they will never lose a fight to
the mirror and you will take it away again in an hour so in his head
he won the fight and is king of his castle once again."
=========
I used a variety of the following keywords for my search:
animals behavior mirror
animal mirror vision
animal perception mirror reaction
animal vision mirror reflection reaction
animal body image mirror
animal intelligence mirror image
male bettas mirror reaction fight
=========
Best regards,
tlspiegel |
