And does this negate the “mirror test” idea? That is, an animal failing to recognise that the creature in the mirror is themselves, but can recognise themselves in water, shows that their problem isn’t with the concept of reflectivity or “self”, but something about the mirror’s version of themselves that they can’t quite grasp?
A follow-up question: Does an animal recognise its own shadow, and does this count as a kind of “self-awareness” when their shadow is moving around in the world but they don’t lose their mind over it?
Thank you!
Hm, just a quick thought. Infant animals do get ‘surprised’, but just accepts their environment pretty quickly. Adult animals won’t get surprised if they see themselves in the water, but they will if there’s suddenly a Portal ‘mirror’, showing them selves, in the middle of no-where.
Exploration of ‘self’ only happens in safety and waterholes are not safe for predators. I don’t think most animals have the opportunity/energy to diverge their attention to reflect on their own reflections, while watching for predators. Maybe Elephants and similar safe animals ?
Edit: I think the issue with shadows are the same. Kids can follow, or be scared of their own shadows, but pretty quickly habituates to it, so its brain doesn’t react to it all the time and burn off energy.
Neat question/connection btw.