SELF-AWARENESS AND OTHER-AWARENESS .2. MIRROR SELF-RECOGNITION, SOCIAL CONTINGENCY AWARENESS, AND SYNCHRONIC IMITATION

Eighteen-month-old children were tested for mirror self-recognition us ing the classic rouge test or an alternative procedure, for social con tingency awareness by being closely imitated for a long time, and for the capacity for communication by synchronic imitation. The classic mi rror rouge test was shown to produce false negatives. Most recognizers and nonrecognizers became aware of being imitated and imitated the ac tivity of a model, but only recognizers engaged in sustained synchroni c imitation of the model. The results support our hypothesis that self -recognition and spontaneous perspective-taking develop in close synch rony because both require a capacity for secondary representation.