Recognising oneself in the mirror, a test to read with caution
A discreet mark on the face, a mirror, and one watches whether the child looks for it on their own body rather than in the reflection. The test is simple; what it measures is much less so.
The origin of the test
The principle was formalised in 1970 by Gordon Gallup with chimpanzees: a coloured mark is placed on an area of the face that cannot be seen without a mirror, and one then observes whether the animal, placed in front of its reflection, touches the mark on its own body rather than on the image.
In 1972 Beulah Amsterdam published a version adapted to young children, using a smear of rouge on the nose. A gesture directed at the child's own face then became the accepted sign of self-recognition in the reflection.
The test was subsequently applied to many species, with successes reported in great apes and more disputed results in other animals. This spread made the mark a shared criterion, used well beyond the context for which it had been designed.
The observed timetable
In the Western samples studied since, most children pass the test between eighteen and twenty-four months. Before that age, the child smiles at the reflection, touches it or looks behind the mirror, without linking the mark to their own face.
Success roughly coincides with other changes in the second year, such as using one's first name to refer to oneself or certain reactions of embarrassment. This coincidence fed the idea of a common transformation, without the causal link between these behaviours having been demonstrated.
What the test presupposes
Touching the mark requires several things at once: understanding how a reflective surface works, noticing an anomaly on a familiar face, and judging that this anomaly deserves a gesture. A failure may therefore come from any one of these steps, and not necessarily from an absence of self-representation.
Work by Daniel Povinelli and his colleagues showed that children of two or three who pass in front of a mirror often fail when the image is a video delayed by a few minutes, which distinguishes immediate recognition from a representation of the self situated in time.
Comparisons across contexts
A study published in 2011, conducted notably by Tanya Broesch and Philippe Rochat, applied the test in several countries. In Kenya, very few children removed the mark, whereas Western pass rates were found at other sites.
The authors do not conclude that self-recognition is absent. They suggest that children may perceive the mark without touching it, in contexts where they are expected to show great restraint in front of an unfamiliar adult and in an unusual situation.
What the debate brings to light
The case illustrates a general problem: a test designed in one context defines success by a precise behaviour, and that behaviour also depends on social norms the test does not measure.
The emergence of a form of self-recognition during the second year remains a solid result in the populations studied. What is still debated is how much of it the mirror test actually captures, and what it confuses with something else.
Key points
In Western samples, most children pass the mark test between eighteen and twenty-four months.
A failure may stem from understanding of the mirror or from a judgement about the mark, not only from self-representation.
Differences observed across contexts call into question what the gesture measures, more than the existence of self-recognition.
This article describes documented mechanisms and disagreements. It recommends no position, no party and no vote, and commits to no reading other than that of the work it cites.
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