Animals might not care about the marks. Cleaner wrasse, a species of fish, did pass the mirror test (the multiple phases, including the final self-directed behaviour with the visible mark), and they are particularly inclined to clean things (parasites) that look like the mark, which is where they get their name. I think the fact that they are inclined to clean similar looking marks was argued to undermine the results, but that seems off to me.
I would be interested in seeing the mirror test replicated in different sensory modalities, e.g. something that replays animals’ smells or sounds back to them, a modification near the source in the test condition, and checking whether they direct behaviour towards themselves to investigate.
Some criticisms of past scent mirror test are discussed here (paper with criticism here). The issues were addressed recently here with wolves. Psychology Today summary.
I think animals are more likely to show body (touch, pain) awareness and have a related self-representation (a body schema?). For example, mice get the rubber hand (tail) illusion. From having their tail and the rubber tail just stroked together, they extend their expectations of having their tail grasped to the rubber tail.
Of course, many animals have failed the mirror test, and that is indeed evidence of absence for those animals. Still,
Animals could just be too dumb (or rely too little on vision) to understand mirrors, but still self-model in other ways, like in my top comment. Or, they might at least tell themselves apart from others in the mirrors as unique, without recognizing themselves, like some monkeys and pigeons. Pigeons can pick out live and 5-7 second delayed videos of themselves from prerecorded ones.
Animals might not care about the marks. Cleaner wrasse, a species of fish, did pass the mirror test (the multiple phases, including the final self-directed behaviour with the visible mark), and they are particularly inclined to clean things (parasites) that look like the mark, which is where they get their name. I think the fact that they are inclined to clean similar looking marks was argued to undermine the results, but that seems off to me.
I would be interested in seeing the mirror test replicated in different sensory modalities, e.g. something that replays animals’ smells or sounds back to them, a modification near the source in the test condition, and checking whether they direct behaviour towards themselves to investigate.
Some criticisms of past scent mirror test are discussed here (paper with criticism here). The issues were addressed recently here with wolves. Psychology Today summary.
I think animals are more likely to show body (touch, pain) awareness and have a related self-representation (a body schema?). For example, mice get the rubber hand (tail) illusion. From having their tail and the rubber tail just stroked together, they extend their expectations of having their tail grasped to the rubber tail.