Why did 'fish recognizing yourself in the mirror' shocked researchers?

Mirror test to check the self-recognition of living things is used in the research field for decades, depending on whether you recognize the image reflected in the mirror yourself or not. It is said that human beings recognize the image inside the mirror as himself from about 18 months old, and it is reported that chimpanzees, dolphins, magpies will clear the mirror test in addition to humans. However, research results that fish "newly recognized himself with a mirror" were announced, and the premise that "requires high intelligence for self-recognition" is overturned, or "mirror test is not appropriate" We are calling a big debate on the possibility that it has come up.

A 'Self-Aware' Fish Raises Doubts About a Cognitive Test | Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-self-aware-fish-raises-doubts-about-a-cognitive-test-20181212/

Not only mammals and birds but also small tropical fish called Labroides dimidiatus ( Phonsomewavera ) also passed the Miller Test was published in September 2018.

Cleaner wrasse pass the mark test. What are the implications for consciousness and self-awareness testing in animals? | BioRxiv
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/21/397067

First confirmation of "fish in self in the mirror", Osaka City Univ. | National Geographic Japan version site
https://natgeo.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/18/091300402/

The result of this research is argued because "self-recognition" has been considered as a special thing that is found only in humans and some mammals. Based on the results of this research, it is possible that self-recognition may be a feature seen in broader creatures. Alternatively, this "mirror test" method may not be appropriate as confirming the presence or absence of self-recognition.

Miller test was invented by a psychologist at the State University of Albany, State University of New York called Gordon Gallup in the 1970s. According to Mr. Gallup, when I showed the mirror to the four chimpanzees in each Ori, the chimpanzee was initially responding by considering myself in the mirror as another chimpanzee, but as time goes on , He seems to have taken actions that recognize that "being in the mirror is yourself", such as checking the condition of your teeth.

Male photograph is Mr. Gallup.

After that, when we took a chimpanzee with a red dye on the eyebrows and ears in front of the mirror, the chimpanzee reached the eyebrows and ears of the person, not the image in the mirror, so chimpanzees recognized self I concluded that I was doing. Especially Mr. Gallup was surprised that the macaque monkey failed the self-recognition experiment, despite the success of the chimpanzee experiments. The paper was announced in 1970, and it gets a lot of attention.

Mr. Beulah Amsterdam, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was conducting research on self-recognition using a mirror for young children at about the same time as Mr. Gallup's earlier work. In this study, when the infant's nose was marked with lipstick, many young children seem to be able to recognize the image reflected in the mirror by 2 years old.

Following Mr. Gallup's research, Diana Rice, a cognitive psychologist at the City University Hunter at the City University College of New York, worked with many researchers including Mr. Gallup to conduct a dolphin mirror test. As a result, the dolphin living in the aquarium was announced to have cleared the mirror test.

Dolphin passes the "Miller test" which recognizes himself in the mirror earlier than a human baby - GIGAZINE

Rice said that as a result of previous research, Asia elephant, orangutan, Bonobo, gorilla, magpie passed the mirror test, but Mr. Gallup really has passed the mirror test is chimpanzee, orangutan, I insist that it is only human. For other animals, Mr. Gallup thinks that researchers misread the meaning of animal behavior.

In September 2018 the paper that the fish passed the Miller test was presented by Alex Jordan, a research team of evolutionary biologists such as Max Planck Institute in Germany. Honsomeva Bela, the subject of the experiment, lives in coral reefs and is known as a "sweeping shop" in order to eat parasitic fish and peeled skin larger than yourself. Hong Sawayakebella observes the environment carefully and seems to try to "clean" the skin of the hands and face when recognizing it as a "client" of cleaning even if the other person is a human being.

When I placed a mirror in front of Phonso Meakewella, the reaction seemed to be similar to a chimpanzee, and Hong Sawake Bella first attacked the statue in the mirror, but then afterwards swimming up and down, I showed a different behavior. And a few days later, I realized that it was my reflection, and I spent a lot of time in front of the mirror.

Researchers injected brown material into the skin of the fish, some of them said that their body was dirty in front of the mirror and rubbed the brown areas to rocks and sand. As a result of such experiments, the researchers judged that 3 out of 4 passed the Miller test. However, Mr. Gallup points out that this research result is "ambivalent". In other words, Mr. Gallup said that he could go back and forth between the mirror and the rock to the fish in the mirror "The action to teach" Mustard is on the egg "".

Mr. Rice also has doubts about his research as Mr. Gallup, and the injected brown marks are similar to parasites, pointed out that Hong Sawake Bela instinctively responded. Mr. Jordan and his colleagues have submitted a paper with further control experiments in response to Mr. Rice's point of view that "we need such stronger evidence that we need stronger evidence."

On the other hand, the word "self-awareness" is ambiguous and its definition varies from person to person. Mr. Rice regards Miller test as "one aspect of self-recognition" and it is said that it is different from the overall "self-recognition" which human being possesses. Mr. Mark Bekov, a biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder and Paul Sherman at Cornell University, self-recognition ranges from "reflexive" to "one that recognizes itself like a human", spectrum ) We suggest that there are various levels like.

Mr. Jordan, who wrote a paper on fish self-recognition, supports this idea of spectrum and believes that Hong Somewakabella has a low level of self-cognizance (self perception). Mr. Jordan argues that "Mirror test can not examine self-awareness", which seems to be agreed with other researchers. "Our community wishes to reevaluate and correct the way we understand animal's perception," Jordan said.

In addition, it is pointed out that it is not fair to conduct a mirror test on animals focusing on sensations other than visual sense, since the mirror test is visual. For example, the results of the mirror test are not good for dogs, but when the "olfactory mirror test" was made, the dog is smelling for a longer time than the sample smelled with excessive smell in its urine It was indicated that it was shown. "For organisms like us who place importance on vision, it is difficult to imagine the world's sense of a non-visual creature," says Alexandra Horowitz, psychologist at Bernard College, By understanding this, it is thought that you can better understand the spirit and thought of creatures.

However, many researchers agree about "there is connection to self recognition and sociality". All species with good mirror test results live in a group, and in the first test by Mr. Gallup only chimpanzee, who grew up alone, failed the test. George Herbert Mead, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, also considers this idea that his sense is created by the relationship with others, "I can not experience" self "by myself alone I will.