Brief Report

Cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) fail to show mirror-guided self-exploration

  1. Marc David Hauser1,2,*,
  2. Cory Thomas Miller1,
  3. Katie Liu1,
  4. Renu Gupta1

Article first published online: 22 FEB 2001

DOI: 10.1002/1098-2345(200103)53:3<131::AID-AJP4>3.0.CO;2-X

Issue

American Journal of Primatology

American Journal of Primatology

Volume 53, Issue 3, pages 131–137, March 2001

Additional Information

How to Cite

Hauser, M. D., Miller, C. T., Liu, K. and Gupta, R. (2001), Cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) fail to show mirror-guided self-exploration. Am. J. Primatol., 53: 131–137. doi: 10.1002/1098-2345(200103)53:3<131::AID-AJP4>3.0.CO;2-X

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  2. 2

    Program in Neurosciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

*Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 22 FEB 2001
  2. Article first published online: 22 FEB 2001
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 6 DEC 2000
  4. Manuscript Received: 2 MAY 2000

Funded by

  • National Science Foundation. Grant Number: SBR-9357976

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Keywords:

  • self-recognition;
  • mirrors;
  • cotton-top tamarins

Abstract

To investigate the problem of inter- and intraspecific differences on the mirror test, we conducted two experiments on cotton-top tamarins. Experiment 1 employed a technique similar to one used recently on chimpanzees, and provided no evidence of mirror-mediated touching of the marked area. In a control condition, involving colored dye applied to one arm, two subjects also failed to show self-directed touching, even though they clearly looked at their newly dyed arm. Under these test conditions, cotton-top tamarins fail to show mirror-guided self-exploration. Experiment 2 examined whether this failure was due to insufficient mirror exposure, as well as other details of the testing conditions. In particular, we replicated the design of a previously successful experiment on mirror-mediated recognition in tamarins [Hauser et al., 1995], providing four new animals with a protracted period (three weeks) of mirror exposure prior to dying their hair. In parallel with results from Experiment 1, we observed no evidence of mirror-mediated behavior (recognition) in Experiment 2. Am. J. Primatol. 53:131–137, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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