Editing Mirror test (section)

==Method and history==
The inspiration for the mirror test comes from an [[anecdote]] about [[Charles Darwin]] and a captive orangutan. While visiting the [[London Zoo]] in 1838, Darwin observed an [[orangutan]] named Jenny throwing a [[tantrum]] after being teased with an apple by her keeper. This started him thinking about the subjective experience of an orangutan.<ref name="darwin1">{{cite magazine|first=Jonathan|last=Weiner|title=Darwin at the Zoo|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=darwin-at-the-zoo|date=1 December 2006|magazine=[[Scientific American]]}}</ref> He also watched Jenny gaze into a mirror and noted the possibility that she recognized herself in the reflection.<ref name="darwin2">Carl Zimmer. ''The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition.'' excerpt available at [http://carlzimmer.com/books/descentofman/excerpt.html http://carlzimmer.com/books/descentofman/excerpt.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229004750/http://carlzimmer.com/books/descentofman/excerpt.html |date=29 February 2008 }}.</ref>

In 1970, Gordon Gallup Jr. experimentally investigated the possibility of self-recognition with two male and two female wild preadolescent [[chimpanzee]]s (''Pan troglodytes''), none of which had presumably seen a mirror previously. Each chimpanzee was put into a room by itself for two days. Next, a [[full-length mirror]] was placed in the room for a total of 80 hours at periodically decreasing distances. A multitude of behaviors was recorded upon introducing the mirrors to the chimpanzees. Initially, the chimpanzees made threatening gestures at their images, ostensibly seeing their reflections as threatening. Eventually, the chimps used their reflections for self-directed responding behaviors, such as grooming parts of their body previously not observed without a mirror, picking their noses, making faces, and blowing bubbles at their reflections.

Gallup expanded the study by manipulating the chimpanzees' appearance and observing their reaction to their reflection in the mirror. Gallup anesthetized the chimps and then painted a red alcohol-soluble dye on the eyebrow ridge and the top half of the opposite ear. When the dye dried, it had virtually no olfactory or tactile cues. Gallup then removed the mirror before returning the chimpanzees to the cage. After regaining full consciousness, he recorded the frequency with which the chimps spontaneously touched the marked areas of skin. After 30 minutes, the mirror was reintroduced into the cage, and the frequency of touching the marked areas was again determined. With the mirror present, the frequency increased from four to ten, compared to only one when the mirror had been removed. The chimpanzees sometimes visually or olfactorily inspected their fingers after touching the marks. Other mark-directed behavior included turning and adjusting the body to better view the mark in the mirror or tactile examination of the mark with an appendage while viewing the mirror.<ref name="Gallup" />

An essential aspect of the classical mark test (or rouge test) is that the mark/dye is nontactile, preventing attention from being drawn to the marking through additional perceptual cues ([[somesthesis]]). For this reason, animals in the majority of classical tests are anesthetized. Some tests use a tactile marker.<ref name="Mitchell">{{cite journal|author=Mitchell, R.W.|year=1995|title=Evidence of dolphin self-recognition and the difficulties of interpretation|journal=Consciousness and Cognition|volume=4|issue=2|pages=229–234|doi=10.1006/ccog.1995.1029|pmid=8521261|s2cid=45507064}}</ref> If the creature stares unusually long at the part of its body with the mark or tries to rub it off, then it is said to pass the test.

Animals that are considered to be able to recognize themselves in a mirror typically progress through four stages of behavior when facing a mirror:<ref name="Plotnik2006" />
{{ordered list|list_style_type=lower-alpha
| social responses
| physical inspection (e.g., looking behind the mirror)
| repetitive mirror-testing behavior
| realization of seeing themselves}}

The rouge test was also done by [[Michael Lewis (psychologist)|Michael Lewis]] and [[Jeanne Brooks-Gunn]] in 1979 for the purpose of self-recognition with human mothers and their children.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Social and Personality Development |last=Shaffer |first=David |publisher=Thomson Wadsworth |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-495-60038-1 |location=Belmont |pages=172}}</ref>