Consciousness: and self-awareness (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 23, 2019, 19:06 (1647 days ago) @ David Turell

An article on the subject involving the mirror test:

https://aeon.co/essays/what-can-the-mirror-test-say-about-self-awareness-in-animals?utm...

"Self-awareness is not, however, the same as being conscious – which is commonly defined as being aware of one’s body and surrounding environment, a mental trait many animals share with us. Indeed in 2012, a prominent international group of neuroscientists, ethologists and psychologists issued what’s been called ‘The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness’. It asserted that:

"Convergent evidence indicates that nonhuman animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviours. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.

"But being conscious of one’s body does not mean that an animal also has a capacity for introspection – a key part of being self-aware. While consciousness is being aware of one’s body, self-awareness takes the sensation one step further – you recognise that you are aware of your awareness. (my bold which entirely fits my thoughts)

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"How can we test for this mental ability? Is there a way to glimpse self-awareness in our minds and those of other animals? Perhaps. Using the mirror self-recognition (MSR) test, scientists have established that chimpanzees and orangutans, at least, are self-aware.

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" And while some contend that certain species, such as dolphins, elephants and European magpies, have passed, Gallup disagrees. ‘I do have an open mind, and am not against other species, but none has succeeded so far,’ he says. To him, this is an indication that the test reveals a clear dividing line between animals with minds and those that are mindless.

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"‘Honestly, the test sucks,’ says Alex Jordan, an evolutionary biologist and principle investigator at the Department of Collective Behaviour at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Jordan is a co-author of a recent study in PLOS Biology evaluating the behaviours of the cleaner wrasse, a small fish that took the test. Jordan and his colleagues argue that the fish passed the test, but that this doesn’t mean that cleaner wrasses are self-aware. ‘It [the mirror test] may be testing for other things, such as associated learning and conflict resolution. But is it testing for self-awareness?’ Jordan asks. ‘No – that’s a stretch.’

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"We also still have much to learn about how human children perceive their reflected images. Scientists have recently discovered that children in Fiji and Kenya don’t recognise their mirrored selves at age two, as Western children normally do, or even at age six. (But even Western children who do recognise themselves in mirrors don’t recognise their images in videos that were made a few months before they took the mirror test.) When told they were looking at themselves, the Kenyan and Fijian children reacted with silence, researchers reported in 2010.

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"Yet comparative cognition scientists largely agree that most animals are conscious and thinking beings, capable of taking in information, making decisions based on this, and then acting on it. It’s simply that next step – the ability to think about their own thoughts – that remains elusive, something we have not yet been able to capture or measure.

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"...is it worthwhile to continue testing other species; can we learn anything by doing so? Lori Marino, a neuroscientist and director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy in Utah – who was one of Gallup’s students, and also participated on some of the first mirror tests with dolphins – thinks so, and remains an advocate. Since ‘self-awareness is not a very tractable phenomenon’, it’s difficult for us to ‘create probes and tests’ that are easy to administer and understand, says Marino. The mirror test ‘does capture something that is related to self-awareness and may be the best “objective” measure we have. But I don’t think it’s tapping into some overly romanticised property present in some animals and absent in others.’" (my bold)

Comment: This article provides some clarity about the relationship of self-awareness as part of consciousness. My dog recognizes me in a mirror, but obviously not himself. Animals have some bodily self-awareness, but do not conceptualize about it. We do.