On Mark-Test Replication and Mirror Self-Recognition in Magpies

• Published in: Journal of comparative psychology (1983) 2020-11, Vol.134 (4), p.361-362
• Main Author: Freeberg, Todd M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal; Animal Behavior; Animal Cognition; Animal Research; Birds; Comparative studies; Data replication; Experimental Replication; Mirror Image; Psychological research; Text analysis
• ISSN: 0735-7036; 1939-2087
• DOI: 10.1037/com0000256

We have known about the importance of replication and reproducibility since our earliest science classes. In animal behavioral studies, the major texts on methods in the field stress the importance of study replication. Nonetheless, there has been a growing call in animal behavior for greater efforts to replicate published studies. An interesting avian candidate for the mark-test is the magpie, Pica pica. Over 10 years ago, a study revealed evidence of two magpies (out of five tested) passing the mark-test (Prior, Schwarz, & Güntürkün, 2008). Given the importance of this finding to the field of comparative cognition, and the aforementioned arguments about the need for increased efforts to replicate such findings, Soler et al. (2020) set out to replicate the earlier magpie study with a slightly larger sample size. The magpies were caught in the wild as adults (whereas those in the earlier study were adults that had been hand-raised in the lab; Prior et al., 2008). During the experiment itself, Soler and colleagues (2020; this issue) tried to follow the experimental steps of the earlier study as closely as possible. Magpies were marked on their throats with different sizes and colors of stickers and were presented with either a mirror or a size-matched cardboard stimulus. Although the magpies showed different social and self-directed behavior in the context of the mirror as compared with the cardboard control stimulus, they did not pass the mark-test. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)