Self and Conscious Experience 165“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanityform “mine.” A child is able to project self as an object by identifying
himself in a mirror, as can be verified with the “mirror test.”^3 When
presented with a mirror, the child may first examine the backside and
see if there is a real object behind it, but he will quickly realize that the
image is his own face and body. One way to confirm self-recognition is to
surreptitiously put a red spot on the child’s nose (“rouge test”) and see
if he or she will touch his/her nose while looking at the mirror.^4 A child
passing this test should also be able to pick out himself from a group
picture. Great apes, dolphins and elephants also pass the mirror test,
whereas dogs fail. Since the dog’s world is very much determined by
odor, a dog will first sniff at the mirror and then become disinterested.
By contrast, a fiddler crab will fiercely fight its own image (as an enemy)
in a mirror. Dolphins will look into the mirror and examine their own
bodies and their mouths, very much like chimps and humans.^5 In a well-
publicized case, an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo in New York
was marked with an “X” on the forehead where it could not see except
with a mirror. The elephant repeatedly touched the spot with its trunk,
while looking into the mirror, as if trying to examine it or to remove it.^6
In Stage 2 a person (or animal) is able to bring his own image out and
place it among numerous other “non-self” objects, as if he had “stepped
out of his body” and was looking back at himself.
By four to six years (Stage 3), there is further change in perspective,
i.e., from out of one’s own body into the mind of other persons. This is
demonstrated by the “theory-of-mind” test.7,8 Theory-of-mind refers to
the ability of an agent to infer the mental state of another. As Premack
and Woodruff put it: “An individual has a theory of mind if he imputes
mental states to himself and others. A system of inferences of this kind
is properly viewed as theory because such states are not directly observ-
able, and the system can be used to make predictions about the behavior
of others.” Theory-of-mind was first tested on a chimpanzee using vid-
eotapes and photographs; the animal passed the test. Normal children
passed but the mentally retarded failed. A typical protocol is illustrated
by the “Sally-Anne Test” (Fig. 8.1).^9 Sally (the girl in white, on the left)