The Phenomenon of Previewing and its Contribution to the Emerging Sense of Self

“Based on stringent measures of the infant's social interactions, Stern has postulated a four-step process of self-development. These internal factors contribute to the infant's emerging sense of the self as an entity separate and apart from others. There are, however, also significant external factors that contribute to the evolution of the self. The phenomenon of previewing provides infant with a means by which they develop, with the aid of an adaptive caregiver, their own abilities to achieve a sense of coherence and competence. The previewing process, combined with Stern's internal factors, provides a comprehensive theoretical basis for exploring hos infants achieve selfhood.”

Over the past two decades the scientific evaluation of infant behaviors has yielded an abundance of data concerning the developmental processes. Prior to that time interpretation of infant manifestations were based on preconceived notions of cognitive, motivational, or other observer-imposed theories. Recently, however, researchers have obtained more objective information by correlating response measures with the behaviors infants actually exhibit. Using volitional behaviors isolated by in-depth observations of very young infants, questions such as “do infants prefer looking at faces as opposed to other visual stimuli?” can now be answered definitively.

This new body of objective information indicates that the infant's perceptual capacities are far more complex and sophisticated than initially supposed. Evidence of the infant's innate preference for looking at faces (Haith, Bergman, & Moore, 1977) and an inborn ability for amodal perception (e. g., visual recognition of an