Children's understanding of the relation between delayed video representation and current reality: a test for self-awareness?

This study investigated whether children's ability to recognize themselves in delayed video feedback indicates changes in self-awareness (Povinelli, Landau, & Perilloux, 1996, Child Development, 67, 1540-1554). Children were presented with 3-min-old videos of themselves to test whether they would investigate the current state of affairs upon seeing a surprising element in the video. In one condition, a sticker had been covertly placed into the child's hair, and in another an object had been hidden in a box. Both conditions proved equally difficult and performance correlated. Four-year-olds performed better than 3-year-olds, and children who failed the tasks retrieved the "surprise" item when presented with a mirror. There was no evidence to suggest that children's difficulties were due to immature metarepresentational thinking, lack of experience, problems with the questions, or problems appreciating the correspondence between image and referent. Yet, the parallel results in both conditions and the likelihood of false positives and false negatives indicate that the video test in its present form may not be a valid measure of differences in self-awareness. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.