Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
Published on: March 1, 2017
Facing the perfect contingency: interactions with the self at 2 and 3 months
Vasudevi Reddy1, Vivienne Chisholm, David Forrester
1Centre for the Study of Emotion, University of Portsmouth, UK. vasu.reddy@port.ac.uk <vasu.reddy@port.ac.uk>
Abstract:
We used a double video Live-Replay-Live procedure to explore self-self interactions in fourteen 9-week-old infants, repeated at 13-weeks with 10 of these infants. Using multiple measures of behavioural response we found that (1) in all cases where age effects held, duration of response was greater at 9- than at 13-weeks, (2) infants' responses differed according to whether or not self-images were Live or Replay, and (3) age and condition interacted to influence infants' responses. At 9 (but not 13) weeks, the two Live conditions correlated with each other but not with the Replay condition on some measures, indicating that infants apprehended the visual-proprioceptive contingency provided by their actions. Also at 9-weeks only, all infants showed reversals in visual attention with evidence for a bi-modal pattern: 8 preferring the Live conditions and 6 the Replay condition. An explanation based on familiarity and increasing disinterest with specific contexts is suggested.
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