루즈 테스트: 자의식 찾기
English
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Vue d'ensemble
출처: 니콜라우스 놀스와 주디스 다노비치 연구소 – 루이빌 대학교
인간은 여러 면에서 다른 동물과 다르지만, 인간을 차별화하는 능력 중 하나는 생각과 감정이 자신과 일치하지 않는 경우에도 다른 사람을 이해하고 자신의 생각과 감정을 시뮬레이션하는 고급 능력입니다. 과학적 측면에서, 이러한 능력은 마음의 이론으로 언급되며,이 이해는 칭찬을주고, 그룹에서 일하고, 호의를 요청하고, 흰색 거짓말을 하는 것과 같은 활동에 필요합니다.
인간은 완전히 발달 된 마음의 이론으로 태어나지 않습니다. 다른 사람들과 분리되어 있고 다른 욕망과 지식을 가지고 있다는 개인의 이해는 확립된 자아감각을 필요로 한다. 따라서, 자기 인식과 자기 인식을 개발하는 것은 마음의 성숙한 이론을 개발하는 경로에 초기 단계중 일부입니다. 아이들의 개념적 발전이 언어의 숙달을 능가하기 때문에 아이의 새로운 자아 감각을 공부하는 것은 복잡합니다. 이 문제를 해결하기 위해 연구자들은 동물의 자기 인식을 감지하는 데 사용되는 방법을 빌려 어린 아이들에게 적용했습니다. 따라서, 거울과 메이크업의 비트와 함께, 루즈 작업이 태어났다.
이 비디오는 연구원이 다른 나이에 아이들에 있는 자기 인식을 평가하는 방법을 보여줍니다.
Procédure
Résultats
In order to have enough power to see significant developmental shifts, researchers would have to test approximately 20 children per age group, not including infants dropped due to fussiness. Children who have a sense of self-recognition and self-awareness usually touch the marker on their foreheads upon seeing it in a reflection. In contrast, children who fail the test usually ignore the mark or try to touch the reflection of the mark in the mirror. Researchers also report that some children who fail the task assume they are looking at another child in the room, and they touch the mirror or look behind it to find their new friend.
Only a small proportion of the 8- to 12-month-old infants usually pass the rouge test. The vast majority of the infants smile and play with the mirror, and many of them try to touch the mark in their reflection. In contrast, most 20- to 24-month-olds see their reflection and reach up to examine the mark on their forehead (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The proportion of children demonstrating self-awareness increases over time.
Applications and Summary
Most children begin to show the beginnings of self-awareness just before age two. At this time, they also begin to develop a rudimentary theory of mind, including the idea that different people have different preferences and desires. Building upon this basic understanding of others’ minds, children develop to represent how other people feel, leading to the development of complex comparative emotions, such as empathy, envy, and embarrassment, and pretend play, which allow them to practice their social skills even when they are alone. Children also learn to represent what other people see and know, and use this information to guide their social interactions, including knowing when and if they should try to help a friend or how to keep a surprise party a secret.2
Humans are amazing social creatures, but theory of mind is not unique to humans. Apes, elephants, dolphins, dogs, and even some birds have demonstrated the ability to recognize themselves using the rouge test. Encouraged by these findings, researchers have hypothesized that self-awareness is an important building block of social connectedness.
References
- Amsterdam, B. Mirror self-image reactions before age two. Developmental Psychobiology., 5, 297-305 (1972).
- Lewis, M., & Brooks-Gunn, J. Social cognition and the acquisition of self. New York: Plenum (1979).
Transcription
Individuals are not born with a fully developed theory of mind—the unique ability to understand others and simulate their thoughts and feelings, independently of self-desires and knowledge.
Self-recognition and self-awareness are necessary to develop a mature theory of mind. Therefore, studying a child’s emerging sense of self—like understanding one’s contribution when working amongst a group—is valuable to developmental research.
However, examining self-awareness in children is difficult because their mastery of language lags behind their conceptual development. This problem led researchers to adapt methods from animal self-recognition studies and develop the rouge task—an established technique to assess sense of self.
Using methods adapted by Beulah Amsterdam in the 1970s, this video demonstrates a simple approach for how to design and conduct the rouge test with a mirror and a bit of make-up, as well as how to analyze and interpret results on the progression of self-awareness in infants and young children before age 2.
In this experiment, children in two age groups—8- to 12-month-olds and 20- to 24-month-olds—are covertly marked on their forehead with brightly colored make-up and then observed while they look at their reflection in a mirror.
Children who only look at the mirror or who touch their reflection in the mirror fail the test, whereas those who see their reflection and touch the mark on their forehead pass.
In this case, the dependent variable is the number of children in each age group that touch the mark on their actual forehead.
It is hypothesized that the proportion of children who demonstrate self-awareness improves with age.
Before the experiment begins, verify access to a mirror large enough to clearly see the child’s face and a brightly colored and washable product, like lipstick that can be safely applied to their skin. Then, set up a video camera to capture the child’s entire reflection.
To begin, greet the parent and child and briefly inform them about the study. Then, put a small amount of lipstick on your finger.
Once inside, covertly apply lipstick onto the child’s forehead without them being able to see or feel it on their body.
Finally, video record this session: place the child in front of the mirror and observe them interacting with their reflection or physical mark.
Once the study is finished, assign two independent coders to watch the videos and designate whether each child passed or failed the test. Note that the judgments made by both coders should be compared by determining the inter-rater reliability estimate using Cohen’s kappa.
After all of the videos have been scored, generate the proportion of children that passed and failed in each age group, and use non-parametric statistics to determine if any age group differences exist.
Notice that only a small percentage of 8- to 12-month-old infants passed the test. In contrast, over 70% of 20- to 24-month-olds saw their reflection and reached up to examine the mark on their forehead, demonstrating self-awareness.
Now that you are familiar with designing a psychology experiment to investigate children’s self-awareness at a very young age, you can apply this procedure to answer additional questions regarding the normal development of children’s understanding of self and others.
As children develop self-awareness and a basic theory of mind, they begin to understand how other people feel, leading to the emergence of complex behaviors and emotions, including empathy.
Children also learn how to represent what other people know and use this information to guide their own social interactions—such as knowing if and when to keep a surprise party a secret.
In addition, children develop the ability to engage in pretend play, which allows them to practice their social skills, even when they are alone.
Before the self-concept studies were conducted in infants, Gordon Gallup showed that chimpanzees passed the rouge test. Thus, self-awareness is not unique to humans, as many social animals from elephants to birds have demonstrated the ability to relate to others in complex social situations.
You’ve just watched JoVE’s investigation into how children’s self-awareness develops over time. Now you should have a good understanding of how to design and conduct the experiment, and finally how to analyze and interpret the results.
Thanks for watching!