The reflexes of the eye are automatic adjustments your eyes make to help you see and keep them from being damaged. They can respond to light and dark, adjusting how much light enters the retina.

It was the first time a controlled laser mark test has been done on these animals in a wild setting and strengthens the evidence from other studies that monkeys don’t recognise their own reflection.

Joining the likes of killer whales (Orcinus orca) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), plus a number of primates, a common dark-furred mouse has passed what’s known as the mirror test, backed ...

Look in the mirror, and what do you see? You, of course. That answer isn’t as straightforward for all mammals. For decades, scientists have used a psychological milestone called the “Mirror Test” to ...

Wild baboons failed to demonstrate visual self-recognition in a test carried out by anthropologists. Published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study found that while the baboons ...

Researchers report December 5 in the journal Neuron that mice display behavior that resembles self-recognition when they see themselves in the mirror. When the researchers marked the foreheads of ...

Here’s a fun test: Dab some blush onto the forehead of a six-month-old baby and plop them in front of a mirror. They might look at their reflection with curiosity but ignore the rouge. Redo the ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. For decades, self-awareness has been guarded as a very ...