Open AccessMirror Self‐recognition in Nonhuman Primates: A Phylogenetic Approach[Note 1. The study was financially supported by a fellowship from ...]
Author(s) -
InoueNakamura Noriko
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5884.00059
Subject(s) - macaque , bonobo , primate , lemur , rhesus macaque , old world , gorilla , hominidae , psychology , zoology , communication , biology , biological evolution , neuroscience , ecology , genetics , paleontology
To explore the phylogenetic origin of mirror self‐recognition, the present study examined behaviors toward a mirror during a 30‐min session in 12 species of nonhuman primates: prosimians (ring‐tailed lemur), New World monkeys (cottontop tamarin, squirrel monkey, and capuchin), Old World monkeys (bonnet macaque, rhesus macaque, and Japanese macaque), gibbons (white‐handed gibbon), and great apes (orang‐utan, gorilla, bonobo, and chimpanzee). Only the great apes exhibited self‐directed behaviors that were thought to be the critical evidence of mirror self‐recognition. These results suggest that there is a large difference between great apes and the nonhuman primates in terms of the capacity for mirror self‐recognition.