Ljubica Petrovic, Senay Cebioglu Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Children’s first recognition of their face in the mirror indicates the emergence of objective self-awareness, the ability to think about oneself. Among Western urban samples, 18 months marks the onset of this ability and the majority of infants pass the mirror self-recognition (MSR) test by 24 months (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979). Studies conducted with non-Western rural samples, however, show that passing rates are significantly lower in this age group. Currently, the developmental trajectory of self-recognition in populations outside of the Western urban context is unknown. In the present study, we tested a broader age range of ni-Vanuatu children in order to describe the developmental trends of MSR within this population. Data was collected from 65 toddlers aged 17 - 36 months (25 female) in Tanna island, Vanuatu. Based on recommendations from previous research, participants were familiarised with the mirror prior to testing, trained to remove the mark from a doll’s and their own body, and they received several prompts to remove the mark during the test. Additionally, an alternative self-recognition task (i.e., leg recognition; Nielsen et al., 2016) that generates equivalent performance among Western toddlers was administered. Preliminary results suggest that ni-Vanuatu toddlers are not passing the classic face-recognition test prior to 24 months and that performance stabilizes around over 30 months. Our poster will present MSR passing rates for various age groups, compare performance on the face- and leg-recognition tests, and discuss implications for the ecological validity of the MSR test.
