Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) recognize their own past actions

The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror is known as self-recognition, whereas delayed self-recognition is the ability to recognize the relationship between current self and past actions. While 3-year-old human children have self-recognition without the ability for delayed self-recognition, 4-year-old human children demonstrate the capability for both. Chimpanzees, the most closely related species to humans, have displayed the ability for delayed self-recognition. However, little is known about whether this ability is shared amongst all hominid species. In this study, we examined whether orangutans, the most distantly related species to humans within the hominid group, could recognize their own past actions using the preferential-looking paradigm. Our results demonstrated that orangutans were able to discriminate between a delayed video of themselves presented after a 2-second delay, and a recorded video of the day prior. This suggests that orangutans have the ability to relate thei...

镜像自我识别（self-recognition）指个体能够在镜中辨识自身的能力，而延迟自我识别（delayed self-recognition）则是指识别当前自我与过往行为之间关联的能力。3岁人类儿童可完成镜像自我识别，但尚不具备延迟自我识别能力；而4岁人类儿童则同时具备这两种能力。与人类亲缘关系最近的物种——黑猩猩——已被证实具备延迟自我识别能力。然而，目前学界对该能力是否广泛存在于所有人科（hominid）物种中仍知之甚少。本研究采用优先注视范式（preferential-looking paradigm），针对人科类群中与人类亲缘关系最远的红毛猩猩，探究其是否能够识别自身的过往行为。实验结果表明，红毛猩猩能够区分经2秒延迟后播放的自身影像，与前一日录制的自身影像。这表明红毛猩猩具备将当前自我与过往行为建立关联的能力……