Development of Body Self-Awarness in Humans

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Children
Early Childhood
Behavior
Edward Hessler

When do toddlers develop an objective awareness of self?  An experiment with this aim in mind "involved a toy shopping cart to the back of which a small mat had been attached." Pushing the cart to their mothers was the goal "but in attempting to do so (toddlers) had to step on the mat and in consequence, their body weight prevented the cart from moving." The toddlers were 16 and 21 months. "These findings provide further evidence for the notion that toddlers develop an objective awareness of the self during the 2nd year."

The research was reported in a 2007 issue of the journal Infancy by Chris Moore, Jennifer Mealeia, Nancy Garon and Daniel J. Povinelli.

A short video of the experiment may be seen here.