Gordon Gallup and his colleagues developed an interesting way to test whether or not an individual had a sense of “self.” If you place a dot of red dye on the forehead of a human infant of about 18 months of age, the infant will touch his or her own forehead when looking in the mirror. In addition to humans, chimpanzees and orangutans “pass” the test, but most monkeys do not [1, 2].
In Gallup’s original work with chimps, the animals raised in isolation did not pass the test initially, but began to do so after having an opportunity to interact with peers. This observation suggests that making the “self-other” distinction requires social contact.
Now a claim is being made by Joshua Plotnik and his colleagues that elephants can also pass Gallup’s mirror test.
This is “Happy,” one of the Bronx zoo Asian elephants looking at herself in a mirror. Happy repeatedly touched a mark above her eye with her trunk, suggesting that she knew the mirror image was her own.
Given the complexity of elephant social behavior, it is not altogether surprising that these animals might also show evidence of self-awareness.
You can read the Plotnik et al. (2006) study here.
1. Gallup, G.G., Jr. (1977). Self-recognition in primates: A comparative approach to the bidirectional properties of consciousness. American Psychologist, 32, 329-337.
2. Anderson, J.R., & Gallup, G.G., Jr. (1999). Self-recognition in nonhuman primates: Past and future challenges. In M. Haug & R.E. Whalen (Eds.). Animal models of human emotion and cognition (pp. 175-194). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
7 Comments
MollyMcLaughlin · October 31, 2006 at 10:56 pm
I read a similar article about this topic. My article also mentioned that Bottleness Dolphins, as well as great apes and elephants, were capable of self-awareness. Has anyone else heard this?
Laura Freberg · November 1, 2006 at 7:22 pm
It’s my understanding that Gordon Gallup has challenged both the dolphin and elephant work…He thinks that more research is necessary. At any rate, we are probably looking at a task that is only within reach for the most sophisticated brains in the animal kingdom.
esbranti · November 3, 2006 at 2:35 am
It is amazing to me that infant human brains are capable of self-awareness at such an early stage in their development! 18 months seems so young! I was not aware that Elephants had such a sophisticated brain. I have always heard things about other primates, as well as dolphins having very sophisticated minds, but never Elephants. I am curious to know what particular area or lobe in the brain that would enable an animal to recognize themself? Has it been identified or located? If so, have there been cases in which this portion of the brain suffered some amount of damage, which lead a human patient to become incapable of self-awareness? HOW SCARY!!!
Milissa · November 3, 2006 at 11:45 am
This is very interesting. I guess animals are much smarter than some may think as well as much more similar to human behaviors than we think as well. It makes me kind of wonder what a world without mirrors might be like. Why do we feel the need to be so much like the others around us and is it really important or possibly an interference to our lives? I am not surprised by the findings of monkeys because we already know that they are very simiar to humans on many different levels, but the study of elephants is rather surprising because we hear about very few studies on the relation to them and humans.
kcrusePSY340 · November 28, 2006 at 1:26 pm
Elephants, chimps and orangatanes don’t have access to mirrors in their natural environments, but i wonder if there has been research on how they act when they come to a water hole and see their reflection on the surface of the water. On a side note: It’s interesting that humans are the only self aware animals that systematically destroy other “selfs” for reasons other than basic survival and nourishment…
triciagordon3213 · November 28, 2006 at 10:28 pm
I recently had to write a paper about personhood in my philosophy class. One of the theories for what gives a human being persohood was having a self-concept. I argued against this theory because I felt that infants weren’t capable of having a self-concept, but they still had personhood. I guess this proves my argument wrong, it’s amazing what infant human beings are capable of.
Laura’s Psychology Blog » Elephants distinguish between hunters and farmers…. · October 19, 2007 at 10:41 am
[…] In an earlier post, we discussed the possibility that elephants have a sense of self, as evidenced by their ability to “pass” the mirror test. The parallels between human and elephant social behavior is also striking. Due to poaching patterns, young elephants are often without the stabilizing effects of older herd members, which in turn leads them to act like juvenile delinquents. […]
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