TY - GEN ID - cogprints2561 UR - http://cogprints.org/2561/ A1 - Morin, Alain Y1 - 1991/// N2 - It has been suggested recently that self-awareness is cognitively mediated by inner speech and that this hypothesis could be tested by using the private speech paradigm, This paper describes a study in which the creation of a state of self-awareness was attempted in children to test the viability of a research strategy based on private speech and used to explore the hypothesis of a link between self-awareness and inner speech, and to test directly this hypothesis by comparing the incidence of private speech in self-aware and control conditions. 32 children were asked to evaluate the attractiveness of pictures when in front of a mirror (a widely used self-focusing stimulus) and with no mirror. Reliably more favorable ratings of the images were predicted presuming intensification of affects in self-awareness. Private speech was recorded, with the prediction of a more important incidence of "introspective" self-verbalizations (for example, "Wow! I really like this picture!") in the self-aware condition. None of these outcomes were obtained. Results are discussed in terms of previous attempts to manipulate self-awareness in children. It is suggested that the private speech paradigm does not appear to be a promising strategy when inner speech and self-awareness are considered TI - Self-awareness and "introspective" private speech in 6-year-old children. SP - 1299 AV - public EP - 1306 ER -