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Mirror-induced behaviour in animals
Forštová, Tereza ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Landová, Eva (referee)
The topic of self-awareness and mirror self-recognition has been more discussed since 1970, when the new procedure named mark test showed the self-recognition in chimpanzees. Although the theory that mirror self-recognition provides evidence of self-awareness is generally accepted, it was showed in the recent studies that it is not necessarily always true, and that the transition between "having self-awareness" and "not having self-awareness" is gradual. There are more mirror tests dealing with mirror self-recognition in animals, such as mirror-mediated spatial location task. Almost all tested species passed well this kind of mirror tests and showed that there was a certain degree of mirror-image understanding. However not all of them show mirror induced self-recognition. There are several reasons of negative results of mark test such as improper methods and procedures applied to particular species, as well as individual differences, e.g. in social isolation and previous experience with mirror. Problems appear in comparative testing of species with different body morphology, e.g. cetaceans, birds, and fish which have forelimbs in form of wings and fins. They are not able to show the same behavioral responses as primates, for which the original mark test was developed. Applied methods should be always...
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Reactions of great tits (Parus major) to a mirror image
Forštová, Tereza ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
Self-recognition is commonlly taken as a higher ability and it was previously considered to be exclusive to spieces who are cognitively more capable, as humans or apes. However during years other animal species with no expectancy of this ability were tested, such as elephants and cetaceans, and even there the signs of self-recognition were found. The most common test for self-recognition is the mark test. The animal is marked with none-olfactoric and none-tactile mark somewhere on the part of its body which can not be seen without mirror. If the subject recognizes itself in the mirror, it will try to wipe out the mark of its body with help of the mirror image. In our experiment we used great tit (Parus major) as a testing species and three types of mirror tests were carried our. Except the fact that great tits are able to succesfully learn to use the mirror image to search hidden food, we found no evidence of self-recognition in mark test. Therefore we believe that this passerine species is not capable of this type of self-recognition.
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Mirror-induced behaviour in animals
Forštová, Tereza ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Landová, Eva (referee)
The topic of self-awareness and mirror self-recognition has been more discussed since 1970, when the new procedure named mark test showed the self-recognition in chimpanzees. Although the theory that mirror self-recognition provides evidence of self-awareness is generally accepted, it was showed in the recent studies that it is not necessarily always true, and that the transition between "having self-awareness" and "not having self-awareness" is gradual. There are more mirror tests dealing with mirror self-recognition in animals, such as mirror-mediated spatial location task. Almost all tested species passed well this kind of mirror tests and showed that there was a certain degree of mirror-image understanding. However not all of them show mirror induced self-recognition. There are several reasons of negative results of mark test such as improper methods and procedures applied to particular species, as well as individual differences, e.g. in social isolation and previous experience with mirror. Problems appear in comparative testing of species with different body morphology, e.g. cetaceans, birds, and fish which have forelimbs in form of wings and fins. They are not able to show the same behavioral responses as primates, for which the original mark test was developed. Applied methods should be always...
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