Can Dogs Recognize Themselves in the Mirror?

Can animals recognize themselves in the mirror? For years, people have questioned if dogs can pass the mirror test, which is considered to test animal intelligence and can distinguish cognitive abilities in animals.

Source: Seeker/Youtube

Psychologist Gordon Gallup developed the mirror test in 1970, and previous tests on dogs have prompted scientists to conclude that they cannot recognize themselves in the mirror. The mirror test involves placing a visual marker on an animal’s body. The animal is placed in front of a mirror, where scientists observe the animal’s reaction with and without the visual marker. If the animal adjusts their body position to get a better look at the marker, they have passed the test.

“The mirror test is designed to provide information on whether it’s possible for an animal to recognize itself in the mirror,” Leo Trottier, cognitive scientist and founder of How.TheyCanTalk Research and developer of the FluentPet system Bunny uses, told Salon via email. “Intrinsic to how it works is that the animal needs to be ‘naive’ (needs to have no preparation that might in appropriately skew the result).”

The marker is placed on the animal when they are unconscious and when they touch themselves where the mark is, they can see the marker in the mirror.

Eight non-human species have been found to innately pass the mirror test: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, bottlenose dolphins, Asian elephants, cleaner wrasse, and magpies.

Source: BBC Earth/Youtube

The mirror test has been widely controversial, and many question if it can tell us something about self-awareness in animals. Different animals may possess different levels of self-awareness, and the mirror test could not be the best indicator of this. More methods and tools will need to be developed to truly investigate self-awareness in animals.

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