page_title: Mirror test
section_title: Animals that have passed
hierarchical_section_title: Mirror test / Animals that have passed
caption_attribution_description: Pica pica English: A European Magpie, also called a Common Magpie, perching on a branch of a Rowan tree in Manchester, England.
context_page_description: The mirror test—sometimes called the mark test, mirror self-recognition test, red spot technique, or rouge test—is a behavioural technique developed in 1970 by American psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. as an attempt to determine whether an animal possesses the ability of visual self-recognition. The MSR test is the traditional method for attempting to measure self-awareness. However, agreement has been reached that animals can be self-aware in ways not measured by the mirror test, such as distinguishing between their own and others' songs and scents.
  In the classic MSR test, an animal is anaesthetised and then marked on an area of the body the animal cannot normally see. When the animal recovers from the anaesthetic, it is given access to a mirror. If the animal then touches or investigates the mark, it is taken as an indication that the animal perceives the reflected image as itself, rather than of another animal.
  Very few species have passed the MSR test. Species that have include the great apes, a single Asiatic elephant, dolphins, orcas, the Eurasian magpie, and the cleaner wrasse.
context_section_description: Several studies using a wide range of species have investigated the occurrence of spontaneous, mark-directed behaviour when given a mirror, as originally proposed by Gallup. Most marked animals given a mirror initially respond with social behaviour, such as aggressive displays, and continue to do so during repeated testing. Only a few species have touched or directed behaviour toward the mark, thereby passing the classic MSR test.
  Findings in MSR studies are not always conclusive. Even in chimpanzees, the species most studied and with the most convincing findings, clear-cut evidence of self-recognition is not obtained in all individuals tested. Prevalence is about 75% in young adults and considerably less in young and aging individuals.
  Until the 2008 study on magpies, self-recognition was thought to reside in the neocortex area of the brain. However, this brain region is absent in nonmammals. Self-recognition may be a case of convergent evolution, where similar evolutionary pressures result in similar behaviours or traits, although species arrive at them by different routes, and the underlying mechanism may be different.
caption: European magpies have demonstrated mirror self recognition.
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