Self-Awareness

[nlazarus]

So, the current wisdom is that babies become self-aware at around 18 months. The test for this is that they place the baby before a mirror, with a dab of lipstick on the baby's nose. If the baby, seeing her reflection, wipes her own nose, the conclusion is that the baby has realized that the baby in the mirror is, in fact, herself, and is,

Comments

[spiceandsugar]

she might not know what she looks like but she DOES know what you look like, and in her forming mind there is ONE of you so of course the image in the mirror isn't you! And she can smell you, humans react to smell more than any other sense but we don't realise it, its pretty ingrained in our animal selves

[catalyst75]

I didn't know about that test for "self-awareness". Now I'm really curious how Gwen would respond ...

Gwen and I have a lot of fun with the mirror, too. She responds to her reflection by cooing "baby" and interacting with the baby in the mirror.

I think another key to self-awareness is the knowledge - which I think Gwen might not have yet - that she and I are separate people. (That's what separation anxiety is all about, right?) Last night she said "Dada" as Chris left the room, and I said, "That's right, that's Dada. And (pointing to myself) I'm Mama! Can you say Mama?" Gwen then pointed to herself and said "Mama!"

I spent a few minutes pointing to her and saying "Gwen", and pointing to myself and saying "Mama", but she repeatedly pointed to herself and said "Mama".

Interesting post!!

[nlazarus]

My theory about the Terrible Twos (and adolescence, actually) is that it's a result of the baby's realization that they are a separate entity from Mommy. They then proceed to explore this by pushing all the boundaries they can find, to discover what that means, to be a different person. Does this mean I can do things Mommy doesn't want me to do? What happens then?

As a teenager, it's the realization that you are a separate adult from Mommy, but the process is just the same, complicated by elements such as socialization and peer pressure.

I also think that the parental response should be the same; clear, consistent, enforced boundaries. They're exploring a whole new world and it's up to us to define that world, and its edges clearly for them.

[kieri]

The logical error in the whole lipstick thing is that even if she doesn't care about the baby in the mirror at all, she can still -feel- lipstick on her own nose. If she wipes it off it's just a sign that she feels something on her nose and is wiping at it.

I think it's kind of silly to bother wondering. You can never know for sure what's going on in someone else's head, even when they're grown - for a pre-verbal baby it's going to be even more difficult, because they haven't got the years of mental conditioning that causes humans to generally have similar reaction to similar stimulus.

Plus she's a baby. Her job is to look cute, poop in diapers, and get bigger. Beyond that it's all angels on pins anyway. :D

[fruitkakechevy]

Sounds like either your baby is brilliant, or the experiment as originally conceived was dumb :)

[nlazarus]

Could be both. ;)

[realtsunamigirl]

Also, as a further thought, does she smell/hear you behind her and therefore turns to look at you. Babies are pretty attuned to their mothers and their senses are sharper than ours because they haven't been being worn down over the years.

[nlazarus]

She doesn't turn until she sees me in the mirror, which leads me to think it's a visual response. Also, she turns to eat off the spoon she sees in the mirror, and we can assume she can already smell the food.