Discuss whether it helps in understanding human self-awareness.

According to Griffin, (1982), self-awareness is the ability to be conscious of oneself in the context of recognising that you are a unique individual, and that it is you who is experiencing certain feelings, having certain thoughts, or being aware of certain objects. This opinion is largely undisputed when it comes to defining exactly what self-awareness is, the problem arises when attempting to determine whether we, as humans, are the only species capable of experiencing it. The presumption that animals have no mental life arises in part from the viewpoint outlined by Descartes famous statement ‘I think, therefore I am.’ The implications of this are that due to an awareness of your own mental life you can be positive that you exist, but, lacking the same evidence about anyone, or anything else, it is possible to doubt the existence of everything but yourself. However, due to the use of language, we are able to determine, with little hesitation, that other humans also have this self-awareness, given that they are able to inform us. When it comes to other animals, however, we do not have the luxury of verba

Another area of research which is linked to self-awareness in animals, is research into deception. There has been much support for the notion that animals are capable of deception, though the large majority of it is based upon observations of animals in their natural environment rather than controlled studies. Although this provides a high level of ecological validity, it does make it difficult to determine with certainty what the reason for behaviour truly is. For example it has been observed that certain species of ants mislead other colonies by emitting an alarm signal, which instructs the ants to flee, before making a raid, thus ensuring the nest is empty for their attack. Deception is also thought to be used as a defense mechanism by some creatures. For example, many types of birds who are guarding their nests use deception to lead predators away from their offspring, most commonly by feigning an injury to divert the predator’s attention, (Griffin, 1982). One attempt to investigate deception in animals experimentally was Premack and Woodruff’s experiment on chimpanzees, (1978, cited in Walker, 1983). This involved food being placed in one of two containers, witnessed by a chimpanzee, which was then searched for by either a ‘co-operative’ participant, who shared the food if found on the first attempt, or a ‘competitive’ participant who did not. If the competitive participant failed to find the food the chimpanzees were then able to retrieve it for themselves. It soon became clear that the chimpanzees were more willing to help the co-operative trainer find the right container through the use of body positioning, or pointing with their limbs, and some even went as far as to deliberately mislead the competitive trainers. Deception is believed to be a good indicator of self-awareness, as in order to deceive it is necessary to have some idea about what the response of the being you are attempting to deceive will be. This in turn requires a distinction to be made between the thoughts of others, and those which you yourself are experiencing, indicating that an understanding of yourself as a unique individual is present.

l communication that permits us to make this assumption. The question then arises as to whether or not the absence of language also implies the absence of either consciousness or thought, or in fact whether the communication between animals is in fact related closely enough to that of humans that language ceases to be an issue when investigating the difference between human and animal consciousness, (Lea & Kiley-Worthington, 1996).

When it comes to research actually focused on self-awareness in animals, the most frequently used method is the mirror test devised by Gordon Gallup, (1970). The simple experiment involves anaesthetising the animal, and whilst unconscious, painting a spot on it’s forehead in a place that could not normally be seen. When fully recovered from the anaesthetic the animal is placed in front of a mirror and its reactions are recorded. The study has been replicated many times, and it has been found that chimpanzees are particularly adept at recognising themselves in the mirror, and display behaviour that exhibits this, in the form of repeatedly touching the marked spot, (Gallup, Anderson & Shillito, 2003).

Based upon the majority of research available, it appears that whilst there are obvious similarities between self-awareness in both animals and humans, the applicability of the research it limited, and it would make more sense to investigate human awareness

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