RI: The mirror and the mind

This livestream from the Royal Institution of Great Britain will discover how the classic mirror test served as a portal for scientists to explore questions of self-awareness.

ADVANCE BOOKING AND PAYMENT IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TALK.

More details and booking instructions on the RI web site:

https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/mirror-and-mind

SUMMARY
Since the late eighteenth century, scientists have placed humans, infants, animals, and robots in front of mirrors searching for signs of self-recognition. Mirrors served as the best possible means for answering the question: What makes us human?

Join Katja Guenther as she traces the history of the mirror self-recognition test, exploring how researchers from a range of disciplines came to read the peculiar behaviours elicited by mirrors. Investigating the ways mirrors could lead to both identification and misidentification, Katja looks at how such experiments ultimately failed to determine human specificity.

From the robotic tortoises of Grey Walter and the mark test of Beulah Amsterdam and Gordon Gallup, to anorexia research and mirror neurons, the mirror test offers a window into the emergence of such fields as biology, psychology, psychiatry, animal studies, cognitive science, and neuroscience.

Copies of Katja's latest book 'The Mirror and the Mind: A History of Self-Recognition in the Human Sciences' are available to purchase from Blackwell's and all good bookstores.

Livestream:
The live stream will go live at 6.55pm, and the introduction will begin at 7.00pm. If you register but miss the live stream, the video will be available to you via the same link for two weeks after the event date.

Price:
Livestream audience: pay what you can (£10 suggested, £5 minimum)

Event type
This is a livestream event where the speaker and audience come together online.

You will have priority access to the recorded video for two weeks after the event has taken place.

For more information on livestreams, see the information below, or visit our FAQs page. Please use the event link you have been provided with.

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