Watching babies as they discover the world is one of the most entertaining and captivating things that anyone can watch. The way the gaze around the room and attempt to crawl or run to whatever catches their eye first. Or the way that the begin to learn how to speak and learn to count and say the alphabet. The brain development is astounding during these very important years of life. Though it poses a question, when does the child become self-aware? At what point do these young children become able to recognize themselves in the mirror?
Scientists have managed to narrow down the point where this awareness clicks to be between the ages of 18 and 24 months. However they still can't figure out what brings about this awareness. Why children begin to acknowledge that the person they are looking at in the mirror is actually them and not someone else. This neurological click is something that continues to puzzle the minds of scientists across the globe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICakWOSXsg&feature=related
This then led the scientist to test other animals to see if this same level of self-awareness could be found in them also. After several tests on many different types of animals only Chimpanzees and Orangutans were able to pass the test. This only serves to draw more talk about the origins of humans themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-pc_M2qI74
It surprises me to hear that most animals aren't self aware. Because of certain animals extreme behavior, I would have thought they were self-aware. Also, its funny how it seems in any areas they test humans and then chimpanzees, they find even more things we have in common. This is truly one of the many connections with have with those animals.
It is odd to think that so many of the creatures we interact with on a daily basis go without something we regard as critical to our existence. I, and many other dog owners I am sure, believe their pets to be brilliant, caring, and capable beings - but the fact that my dog hasn't got an idea of himself almost detracts from the image that I've got of him in my mind.
Also, I read somewhere (maybe in a National Geographic?) a while ago that now scientists have found that Elephants are also self-aware, which is awesome because they're such bizarrely amazing animals and information like this can lead to better understanding and better treatment of the species.
http://www.livescience.com/4272-elephant-awareness-mirrors-humans.html
Reading this reminded me of a dog I once had. She would see her reflection in the mirror and attempt to attack the mirror-dog. Since primates, especially chimps are so closely related to humans genetically, that would make sense for them to be one of the two animals tested that could become self-aware.
I completely agree that watching babies develop is extremely interesting! Watching my nephew discover his hands, toes and belly button was so entertaining and cute. I was surprised that a majority of animals are not self-aware. It helps explain why dogs park at their reflection in a sliding glass door or why they chase their tails!!
I've always wondered these same questions about infants, how can babies who can't take care of themselves learn to interpret what is going on around them? Information is slowly being revealed about infants and the processes their brains and bodies go through in chapter 10 "Human Development." I have never thought about all of the different steps it takes a baby, including when I was young, to perform tasks that I now think are so simple!
I find it interesting that other types of animals aren't self aware. I have a kitten and when its dark, she always plays with her reflection in the sliding glass door. It never really occurred to me that she didn't realize that it was her in the window, and she probably thinks that it is another kitten.
As others have also mentioned, I was surprised that other animals do not have self awareness which seems like such a simple idea. This is what sets us apart, we are able to have a sense of self and what that really means.
One thing that I really like about your article is the youtube videos. This is an easy yet effective way to get the reader interested as well as help them learn the topic a lot faster and easier. Also, I like that you showed how hard it is to do research on the knowledge of babies. It is really hard to show or predict the exact ages when babies are aware and more intelligent.
Self-awareness is considered a "click"? I had no idea. I always thought that development in the brain was more of a gradual process. I guess this isn't entirely true, as our book describes certain thought processes as “aha moments”. I know elephants have been shown to have self-awareness. When an elephant with a yellow stripe painted on its head saw itself in a mirror, it tried to rub the mark off on its own head in one instance.
Maybe it's a gradual acceptance of your own image? I never really thought that self-awareness was a an "aha moment", like one second you didn't who it was then all of a sudden you realized "hey, it's me in that mirror!" I think that self-awareness is more of a learned process; the more babies see themselves in the mirror, the more they're accustomed to that reflective image, until they come to accept that it's them. Research on this could be done by tracking infants while giving them different mirror usage patterns: one group of infants could use mirrors very frequently, while the other group rarely sees their reflections, and see if there's correlation between experience and self-awareness.