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, L andau, & Perilloux, 1996, Child Development, 67, 1540-1554). Children were presented with 3-min-old videos of themselves to test whether they would in vestigate the current state of affairs upon seeing a surprising element in the video. In one condition, a sticker had been covertly placed into the ch ild's hair, and in another an object had been hidden in a box. Both conditi ons proved equally difficult and performance correlated. Four-year-olds per formed 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 metarepresentati onal thinking, lack of experience, problems with the questions, or problems appreciating the correspondence between image and referent. Yet, the paral lel results in both conditions and the likelihood of false positives and fa lse negatives indicate that the video rest in its present form may not be a valid measure of differences in self-awareness. (C) 1999 Academic Press.