The Microgenetic Study Of Self-recognition In Infancy

Self-recognition that is the cognitive part of self-consciousness means that individual thinks that he is different from others. It is important for children to have a clear knowledge of themselves. The study was conducted to evaluate the occurrence time and the temporal sequencing of visual(mirror, photo and the ability to locate a toy from its mirror image in relation to the child' s own mirror image) and verbal (self-description pronoun use) measures of self- recognition. Amicrogenetic method was adopted to assess 15 toddlers weekly between 15 and 23 months of age. The result showed that:(l)the ability of self-recognition occured and developed between 15 and 23 months of age, and the occurrence time of self-recognition was 16 months and 4 weeks; (2) the developmental change was a gradual process and it had inter-individual variability in occurance process of self-recognition;(3)mirror self-recognition was the earliest precursor of the indices of self-recognition to emerge followed by the ability to locate a toy from its mirror image in relation to the child' s own mirror image, and the photo identification.