No evidence for infants’ contingency detection as a precursor of toddlers’ self-recognition

• Published in: Infant behavior & development Vol. 60; p. 101459
• Main Authors: Klein-Radukic, Sarah, Zmyj, Norbert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.08.2020
• Subjects: Cognitive developmental status; Contingency; Infancy; Self-recognition; Infancy; Cognitive developmental status; Self-recognition; Contingency
• ISSN: 0163-6383; 1879-0453; 1934-8800
• DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101459

•The aim was to examine how mirror and video self-recognition develops.•A longitudinal study was conducted with assessments at 6, 9, 18, and 26 months.•Contingency preference and its relation to later self-recognition were assessed.•No predictive relation between contingency preference and self-recognition was found. The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between infants’ contingency preference and detection in the first year of life and toddlers’ mirror and video self-recognition in the second and third year of life in a longitudinal study (N = 113). Six- and 9-month-olds’ preference for a noncontingent over a perfect contingent view (contingency preference) and their differentiation between the two views – indicated by longer looking times to either view – (contingency detection) were assessed in two contingency tasks. A mirror-face-recognition task and a mirror-leg-recognition task were conducted at 18 months. A video-face-recognition task and a mirror-leg-recognition task were conducted at 26 months. Results revealed no predictive relationships between infants’ contingency preference and detection in the first year of life and their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror or on a video monitor in the second and third year of life. This finding supports the notion that self-recognition emerges independently from the experience of contingencies (Bischof-Köhler, 1991, 2012). Thus, a representation of the self seems to rely on more than a specific developmental pathway leading from contingency preference and detection to self-recognition.