Body awareness was studied experimentally in the rat snakes Elaphe radiata. The experimental design required that the snakes take into account the limits of their bodies when choosing a suitable hole for penetration into the shelter. The experimental setup consisted of two compartments, a launch chamber and a shelter, separated by a partition with openings of different diameters. The diameters of the holes and/or their position in the partition were changeable. The subjects were 20 snakes divided into two groups, for one of which only the locations of the holes varied; for another, both the location of the holes and the limits of the body varied. The body was increased by feeding the snakes. In the course of the first three experimental series the snakes formed the skill of taking into account the body limits, which manifested in the reduced number of unsuccessful attempts to select holes too small for their bodies. During the fourth series, with the locations of holes randomized for each trial, the snakes demonstrated behavioral flexibility, significantly more often penetrating into the shelter from the first attempt irrespectively of the location of the suitable hole. We argue that these results demonstrate the body-awareness in snakes.

Body schemata of rats Rattus norvegicus were studied using a procedure according to which the animals had to take into account the enlarged boundaries of their bodies. Rats of experimental and control groups were trained to get the bait putting the head through the hole of a certain size. Then the boundary of the body of rats of the experimental group was increased using a small cylindrical object mounted on the crown of their heads to prevent putting through the hole. For the control group rats, the size of the hole through which the animals have been trained to take the bait was reduced to prevent the penetration of the rat’s head. In the subsequent experimental series, the arrangement of the holes was varied. It is shown that, with the increased boundaries of the body, the rats are capable of forming a new learning adequate to situation change, which was reflected in the reliable reduction of the time for solving the problem by the end of each series and the reduced number of unsuccessful attempts. Rats of the experimental group also showed the ability to transfer previously gained experience to the new situation, when the location of the holes in the box was changed. The data suggest that the rats are able to modify the body scheme in accordance to change in its physical boundaries.

The goal of this work was to study the ability of the green toad Bufo viridis to form skills based on tactile sensations arising in the process of interaction between animal’s body and external objects. During the experiment we varied the proportions of the holes in the experimental setup, through which the animal penetrated, and the limits of the animal bodies by attaching blankets to their body with an extraneous object. It was found that toads can to take into account the natural limits of their own body when interacting with external objects, and also transfer this experience in a situation where the proportions of the holes in the experiment setup was varied. When the limits of the toad body were urgently changed so that these changes prevent the animals from penetration into certain types of holes, these animals did not learn to take into account the fact that the holes previously permeable to the natural limits of their bodies became impenetrable after increasing these limits. We state that these data indicate that the toads even before the experiment began had experience of taking into account the natural boundaries of their bodies. But toads are not able to modify their body schema, when the limits of their bodies are urgently increased.

No abstract

Схема собственного тела у змей Lampropeltis triangulum campbelli изучалась с помощью методики, в кото-рой животным было необходимо учитывать увеличенные границы собственного тела при нахождении пути движения через отверстия различных диаметров в экспериментальной установке. Границы тела змей уве-личивались путем скармливания им кормовых объектов -мышей. В результате эксперимента было уста-новлено, что при увеличении границ тела таким образом, что это мешало змеям двигаться по ранее выучен-ному пути, животные способны формировать новое научение, адекватное изменившейся ситуации. Однако животные не смогли перенести данный опыт в новую ситуацию при последующем изменении расположе-ния отверстий в экспериментальной установке.Ключевые слова: самоотражение, схема тела, змеи, пресмыкающиеся, членистоногие, крысы, филоге-нез психики. ВведениеПри ориентации в окружающем пространстве для осуществления локомоции и мани-пуляции животным необходимо учитывать физические характеристики собственного тела (границы, объем, массу) и соотносить их с физическими характеристиками внешних объ-ектов. Иначе говоря, животным необходимо «принимать себя в расчет» (Столин, 1983). Человек и другие приматы осуществляют этот процесс преимущественно с опорой на зрение -для нас зрительная система является ведущей при построении когнитивной репрезентации внешнего мира и самих себя. Поэтому одним из существенных критериев сознания считает-ся способность узнавать собственное отражение в зеркале. Этот феномен, начиная с класси-ческих экспериментов Г. Гэллапа (Gallup, 1970), активно исследуется на детях и на детены-шах других млекопитающих. На сегодняшний день установлен факт наличия способности к самоузнаванию у понгид, макак-резусов, слонов, дельфинов, касаток и сорок (подробнее см.: Хватов, 2013). Следует отметить, что данный метод подвергается существенной критике: во-*Хватов И. А. Кандидат психологических наук, доцент, кафедра общей психологии и истории психо-логии, Московский гуманитарный университет.