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Mirror‐image responses in pygmy marmosets ( Cebuella pygmaea )
Author(s) -
Eglash Anne R.,
Snowdon Charles T.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
american journal of primatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.988
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1098-2345
pISSN - 0275-2565
DOI - 10.1002/ajp.1350050305
Subject(s) - mirror image , image (mathematics) , novelty , extinction (optical mineralogy) , communication , psychology , computer vision , computer science , social psychology , physics , optics
Only a few nonhuman species (chimpanzees and orangutans) have displayed mirror‐image recognition of themselves by grooming at a spot that can only be seen with the mirror. Pygmy marmosets have never been observed to self‐groom, but they do behave toward mirrors in a manner suggestive of the early stages of mirror‐image recognition. They displayed a rapid extinction of social threat responses to their own image and of novelty responses to mirrors, but continued to show mirror‐specific responses such as following their own image, playing peek‐a‐boo, and looking at their image throughout a 28‐day period of mirror exposure. The pygmy marmosets used a mirror to locate otherwise unseen conspecifics from other groups and directed threat responses toward the real location of these animals rather than to their mirror‐image. Pygmy marmosets displayed the precursor behaviors to mirror‐image recognition.