Post by tanya on Oct 21, 2017 6:23:06 GMT
The rouge test was designed to understand if and how children,specifically children that were 8- to 12-month-olds and 20- to 24-month-olds are able to have a sense of self. A red dot was placed on their faces, and they were later shown their reflection in a mirror. Those who touched the red dot's reflection in the mirror were thought to be self aware, and those who touched their own face with the dot were deemed self-aware. It was hypothesised that the group of 8 to 12 month old infants would fail the rouge test, which most of them actually did. Most of the infants aged 20 to 24 months passed the rouge test (over 70% of the children examined the mark on their own forehead instead of on the mirror). The rouge test can be said to be reliable as it provides consistent results when repeated, and can also be said to internally valid as the manipulation is only because of the independent variable (the red dot) and nothing else. However, a generalized inference such as that the sense of self develops around 18 months in humans, based on the rouge test is externally invalid. Children younger than 18 months can still have a developed sense of self, through imitation for example, where they would need to know the concept of "another" and "self" .