Article ID: CBB045415018

Monkeys, Mirrors, and Me: Gordon Gallup and the Study of Self-Recognition (2017)

unapi

This article explores the work of psychologist Gordon Gallup, Jr., during the 1960s and 1970s on mirror self-recognition in animals. It shows how Gallup tried to integrate the mental “self-concept” into an otherwise strictly behaviorist paradigm. By making an argument from material culture, the article demonstrates how Gallup's adoption of a self-concept is best understood as a product of his sustained analysis of the workings of the mirror as a piece of experimental apparatus. In certain situations, the stimulus properties of the mirror changed dramatically, a shift that Gallup thought legitimated the positing of a self-concept. For this reason, Gallup supposed he could use a mirror to provide an operationalized concept of the self, that is, produce a definition that was compatible with behaviorist experimental norms. The article argues that behaviorism was more supple and productive than is often assumed, and contained resources that could align it with the “cognitive revolution” to which it is most often opposed.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB045415018/

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Authors & Contributors
Parnas, Josef
Gallaga, Emiliano
Jansson, Lennart
Giuseppina Marsico
Blainey, Marc Gordon
Simon Torracinta
Concepts
Psychology
Behaviorism
Cognition
Self-perception
Mirrors
Emotions; passions
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
Precolumbian period (America)
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Salerno (Italy)
Mesoamerica
Neuchâtel (Switzerland)
Switzerland
Russia
Institutions
Université de Neuchâtel
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