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Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion

Spontaneous mirror self-recognition is achieved by only a limited number of species, suggesting a sharp “cognitive Rubicon” that only few can pass. But is the demarcation line that sharp? In studies on monkeys, who do not recognize themselves in a mirror, animals can make a difference between their...

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Autores principales: Wittek, Neslihan, Matsui, Hiroshi, Kessel, Nicole, Oeksuez, Fatma, Güntürkün, Onur, Anselme, Patrick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8165164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34079500
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669039
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author Wittek, Neslihan
Matsui, Hiroshi
Kessel, Nicole
Oeksuez, Fatma
Güntürkün, Onur
Anselme, Patrick
author_facet Wittek, Neslihan
Matsui, Hiroshi
Kessel, Nicole
Oeksuez, Fatma
Güntürkün, Onur
Anselme, Patrick
author_sort Wittek, Neslihan
collection PubMed
description Spontaneous mirror self-recognition is achieved by only a limited number of species, suggesting a sharp “cognitive Rubicon” that only few can pass. But is the demarcation line that sharp? In studies on monkeys, who do not recognize themselves in a mirror, animals can make a difference between their mirror image and an unknown conspecific. This evidence speaks for a gradualist view of mirror self-recognition. We hypothesize that such a gradual process possibly consists of at least two independent aptitudes, the ability to detect synchronicity between self- and foreign movement and the cognitive understanding that the mirror reflection is oneself. Pigeons are known to achieve the first but fail at the second aptitude. We therefore expected them to treat their mirror image differently from an unknown pigeon, without being able to understand that the mirror reflects their own image. We tested pigeons in a task where they either approached a mirror or a Plexiglas barrier to feed. Behind the Plexiglas an unknown pigeon walked at the same time toward the food bowl. Thus, we pitched a condition with a mirror-self and a foreign bird against each other, with both of them walking close toward the food bowl. By a detailed analysis of a whole suit of behavioral details, our results make it likely that the foreign pigeon was treated as a competitor while the mirror image caused hesitation as if being an uncanny conspecific. Our results are akin to those with monkeys and show that pigeons do not equal their mirror reflection with a conspecific, although being unable to recognize themselves in the mirror.
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spelling pubmed-81651642021-06-01 Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion Wittek, Neslihan Matsui, Hiroshi Kessel, Nicole Oeksuez, Fatma Güntürkün, Onur Anselme, Patrick Front Psychol Psychology Spontaneous mirror self-recognition is achieved by only a limited number of species, suggesting a sharp “cognitive Rubicon” that only few can pass. But is the demarcation line that sharp? In studies on monkeys, who do not recognize themselves in a mirror, animals can make a difference between their mirror image and an unknown conspecific. This evidence speaks for a gradualist view of mirror self-recognition. We hypothesize that such a gradual process possibly consists of at least two independent aptitudes, the ability to detect synchronicity between self- and foreign movement and the cognitive understanding that the mirror reflection is oneself. Pigeons are known to achieve the first but fail at the second aptitude. We therefore expected them to treat their mirror image differently from an unknown pigeon, without being able to understand that the mirror reflects their own image. We tested pigeons in a task where they either approached a mirror or a Plexiglas barrier to feed. Behind the Plexiglas an unknown pigeon walked at the same time toward the food bowl. Thus, we pitched a condition with a mirror-self and a foreign bird against each other, with both of them walking close toward the food bowl. By a detailed analysis of a whole suit of behavioral details, our results make it likely that the foreign pigeon was treated as a competitor while the mirror image caused hesitation as if being an uncanny conspecific. Our results are akin to those with monkeys and show that pigeons do not equal their mirror reflection with a conspecific, although being unable to recognize themselves in the mirror. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8165164/ /pubmed/34079500 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669039 Text en Copyright © 2021 Wittek, Matsui, Kessel, Oeksuez, Güntürkün and Anselme. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Wittek, Neslihan
Matsui, Hiroshi
Kessel, Nicole
Oeksuez, Fatma
Güntürkün, Onur
Anselme, Patrick
Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion
title Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion
title_full Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion
title_fullStr Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion
title_full_unstemmed Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion
title_short Mirror Self-Recognition in Pigeons: Beyond the Pass-or-Fail Criterion
title_sort mirror self-recognition in pigeons: beyond the pass-or-fail criterion
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8165164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34079500
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.669039
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