下面就跟着小编一起了解托福听力讲解分享，希望对大家的学习有所帮助。
S: Well, how does it work? I mean, how do researchers know if elephants or chimps recognize themselves?
P: Researchers give them a mirror mark test. In the mirror mark test, researchers put a mark on the animal where the animal is unable to see it or smell it or feel it, like on the side of their head, without looking in the mirror.
P: Now, typically, when animals first see themselves in the mirror, they think they are seeing another animal. Often they will look for this animal behind the mirror. They may even exhibit aggressive behavior.
P: But some animals, after this period of exploration, exhibit behaviors that show they know they are looking at themselves. For instance, elephants will touch the mark on their heads with their trunks.

test on magpie
So let’s talk about a study recently conducted with magpies. As I said, magpies are corvids. And because corvids have these other cognitive skills, researchers wanted to see if they were also capable of mirror self-recognition. So they gave them the mirror mark test, placing yellow sticker on the birds’ black throat feathers. At first, the magpies all engage in the same social behaviors that other animals do—looking behind the mirror, etc. But eventually, some of the birds, while looking in the mirror, kept scratching at the mark until they got rid of it. And they didn’t scratch at it when there was no mirror around.