I wouldn't say 'superior' but more highly evolved. Two words "prefrontal cortex".

there' no difference between us and animals we are just more evolved. If humans got wiped off the planet and cockroaches had a couple hundred thousand years to run this place they too might become sentient. Essentially sentient and self aware are the same thing. Sometimes I like to think most animals are sentient, they are just smart enough though to not communicate with us stupid humans

For the most part, animals do not recognize themselves in mirrors, and they do not have a sense of purpose, such as "If" - "Then". They act and react on instinct only.

Sentient is to be a sensing being, one that perceives their environment and processes the information received. Sentience implies thought. Self aware is more complex, it is to be able to distinguish yourself as one of many separate, sentient creatures. All animals are sentient, and you can argue about whether lower lifeforms are truly sentient, or just a set of built-in reactions. Yarnlady mentioned the Gallup mirror test, which is used on animals and children to test self awareness. You paint a blob on an animal, and have it look in the mirror. Some animals ignore the image, some react to it like it's another animal of their kind. Some animals, including humans past a certain age, look at their own bodies, realizing that the mirror shows them themselves. I will say that this test may just be biased towards animals with good close range vision, and if we could give other stimulus, more species may pass this test of self awareness. Not only humans recognize their own image, however. All the apes, dolphins, elephants, and a few other species seem to know their own image, interacting like a human would. A few others seem only somewhat self aware. They are confused by the image, or act towards it differently than they would another of their kind. So self awareness isn't a property exclusive to humans, we just have more of it than most animals.

The problem here is one of degrees and definitions. There are few things which approach the levels difficulty like this particular topic does, mainly because we, by necessity, interpret and judge such things according to our HUMAN perspective. As I've noted in other discussions, human terms and definitions are meant for HUMANS to understand, and many times we do poorly enough with that as it is. As humans, we define sentient as "responsive to or conscious of sense impressions". This is closely associated with aware: "having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge". Likewise self-aware: "an awareness of one's own personality or individuality". Self-aware is the point at which most people become stuck on. The problem is that we, as humans, have absolutely NO way to realistically judge whether or not some creatures are actually self-aware because these creatures exist outside our realm of life experience to such a degree that we cannot really relate. Some creatures readily fit within an easily defined "yes or no" catagory. Certainly microbial life forms do not fall under the "yes" catagory when we judge them for sentience or self-awareness. Likewise with most larger animal life forms as well. But what about the elephant? Clearly, they are highly intelligent, form distinct family units, have a complex social interaction, have long and short term memories, and more. Are THEY sentient and self-aware? Very possibly, but certainly NOT on purely human terms. What about many of the cetaceans like whales and dolphins? Clearly they ALSO are highly intelligent, have a complex social interaction, long and short term memories, apparently a complex language, and more. Are THEY sentient and self-aware? Again, possibly but NOT on purely human terms. And apes? We've taught sign language to some gorillas and they can clearly communicate with us in unique terms and ways using it. Are THEY sentient and self-aware? It would certainly seem so, especially when compared to our own very human terms. When answering such questions, many times we humans tend to side track ourselves with details like "But can they do THIS? (use tools, make fire, have large brains, own opposable thumbs, or what-ever)". These may merely be the things that define US as sentient HUMAN BEINGS and have no direct correlation with the rest of the animal kingdom with respect to sentience or self-awareness. You say you have a cat who recognizes herself in a mirror. I say possibly. I don't know. My wife and I have two cats. Our oldest used to attack her image in the mirror as a kitten until she became used to it. It was actually very funny to watch! But it has been MANY years since she's seen herself in a mirror. Our other cat, to my knowledge, has never seen herself in a mirror. When I put a mirror in their room in response to this question, NEITHER of them appreciated the two "additional" cats that suddenly put in an appearance. I suspect that if I left the morror in their room long enough, they would grow accustomed to their images (again, for our oldest) and eventually learn to ignore them. Do they recognize their images as reflections of themselves? It doesn't appear so. Perhaps another meaningful addition to such qualifications would be the ability of a species to recognise another species as something more than just "friend or foe", "food or not-food", "same species or not-same species". These are things done on an instinctive level. I've mentioned before that for almost ANY "human" trait or characteristic I can cite at least one example in the animal kingdom which demonstrates same. Induced abortion? Rodents often do this, perhaps purely as some kind of instinctive survival mechanism. Slavery? There's a species of ant that ACTIVELY raids other species of ants for slaves. I could go on, but you get my point. But again the problem is still complex and we, as humans, want to fit them into clearly defined boxes with our descriptions. Perhaps we cannot do so easily because, like many other things in the real world, such concepts are simply not ever going to be clear. My answer to your question is complex: unless we can relate animal behavior to our purely HUMAN perspectives, we tend NOT to define them as sentient or self-aware. Perhaps we'll get better at this, hmmm?

We create sitcoms, day-time TV and Lohan.

Animals don't have frontal lobes. If you were ever around someone with frontal lobe damage, I think you'd get it. Someone with frontal lobe will have an impulse and immediately act on it, sort of the way a horse might see something scary and immediately run to the other end of the field. They don't stop to question, What is that? Is it important? Will it hurt me? They just act. I worked with a kid whose frontal lobes had been destroyed in a car accident. If he had an impulse, that a child looked sexy, he'd rape that child (he'd done that). If he had an impulse to see what would happen if he fiddled with every knob on a TV randomly, he'd start fiddling with the knobs until he had the TV messed up where nobody could fix it. He didn't have that ability to question what he was doing. There was no ability to reflect on his actions. There was no ability to search for meaning or motive. He just acted. Period. That is the difference between humans and other animals.

the difference is that humans are sapient not just sentient. We are able to think against and beyond our instincts.

The test that is used for self awareness is usually the ability to recognise oneself in the mirror. Humans are not the only animals that can do this. Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, dolphins and elepants can also recognise themselves in mirrors. So, according to that definition, humeans are not the only animals that are self aware. (I don't know if I would take this test as the only way of measuring self-awareness, though, especially considering that many animals place more importance on other senses than vision.)