Emerging sensitivity to standards in toddlers: a necessary but insufficient condition for visual self-recognition in the rouge-task procedure?

Abstract

Different explanations are put forward for the late acquisition of the(or rouge task) in comparison to other mirror tasks. A particularly interesting hypothesis about factors that mask success in MSR task concerns the growth of the appreciation of standards of proper behaviour, noticing deviations from normality in objects and in their own action (Mitchell, 1993, 1994). Standard sensitivity is proposed as a core factor in determining the self recognition capability. To test this hypothesis, we observed 40 infants, aged between 15 and 24 months, confronted with a spot on a doll's face, on the infant's hand, on the observer's face, and on the infant's face. Our data suggest that sensitivity to standards can be seen as a necessary but not sufficient requirement for success in thetask: other capacities, namely the development of representation, may play a decisive role in the successful performance on thetask.