Emerging sensitivity to standard in toddlers: a necessary but insufficient condition for visual self-recognition in the rouge task procedure?

Different explanations are put forward for the late acquisition of the rouge self-recognition task in comparison to other mirror tasks. The appreciation of standards and the existence of a mental map of what does (not) belong to a face or to a body, can be seen as a necessary but insufficient requirement for success in the rouge-task. We observed 40 infants between 15 and 24 months with a spot on a doll’s face, on the infant’s hand, on the observer’s face, and on the infant’s face. From the data, we suggest not to attribute the delay of success in the self recognition task to an appreciation of standards (narrowed down to a “sensitivity to things that are improper to face or body”). Other capacities, namely the development of representations, may play a decisive role in the successful performance on the mirror-and-rouge task.