Awareness, especially self-awareness, is very difficult to study. Self-awareness evolved among our animal ancestors and is found in their descendants today. Its presence can be detected using the ...

Humans are well known for looking in the mirror and responding to their reflections. Interestingly, scientific research has revealed that it is a rare trait among animals, with only a few species ...

Adélie penguins seem to have passed a portion of the mirror test, in which animals that see their reflection in a mirror appear to recognise that they are seeing themselves and not another individual.

The standard test of self-awareness is being able to recognize ourselves in a mirror. Although chimpanzees pass this test with flying colors, gorillas have inconsistent results. Dogs flunk by treating ...