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Claims for mirror self-recognition have been made for numerous species ranging from dolphins and elephants to fish and ants. But based on rigorous, reproducible experimental evidence only some great apes and humans have shown clear, consistent and convincing evidence that they are capable of correctly deciphering mirrored information about themselves. In this article we critique some of the recent claims for self-recognition in other species and summarize some of the cognitive implications of the capacity to become the object of your own attention. Recent neurobiological evidence now appears to validate the connection between self-recognition and self-awareness.

It is important to acknowledge at the outset that there is less than complete consensus about the meaning of the term “self-awareness” (see Gallagher, 2011 for different interpretations). For the purposes of this article we define self-awareness as an object rather than a subject, and as such self-awareness in our view is the capacity to become the object of your own attention, in the sense that you can begin to think about yourself and use your experience to make inferences about comparable experiences in others. When an animal is confronted with its reflection in a mirror it has literally become the object of its own attention, but the question is whether it is capable of realizing that its own behavior is the source of the behavior being depicted in a mirror, that is, visual self-recognition.

Most visually capable species initially react to seeing themselves in mirrors as if there were seeing another animal, but even after extended periods of exposure to mirrors seem incapable of correctly deciphering mirrored information about themselves. In this article we critique a number of recent high-profile claims for self-recognition in other species, including a study of cleaner wrasse, a small fish that evolved to remove parasites from other fish, in which...