Traditional explanations of the infant's difficulty in the stage III, IV, and V object-concept tasks have centred on the fact that the object is made to disappear. It is argued that this emphasis is mistaken. Two experiments are reported which demonstrate that infants continue to have difficulty in these tasks when tested with transparent occluders. The implications of these findings for alternative explanations of the infant's difficulty in the stage III, IV, and V tasks are considered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BellS M, 1970“The development of the concept of object as related to mother—infant attachment”Child Development41291–311.
2.
BowerT G R, 1971“The object in the world of the infant”Scientific American22530–38.
3.
BowerT G R, 1974Development in infancy (San Francisco, CA: W H Freeman).
4.
BowerT G R, 1975“Infant's perception of the third dimension” in Infant Perception: From Sensation to Cognition Eds CohenL BSalapatekP (New York: Academic Press) volume 2.
5.
BowerT G R, 1976“Repetitive processes in child development”Scientific American23538–48.
6.
BowerT G R, 1979Human Development (San Francisco, CA: W H Freeman).
7.
BowerT G RPatersonJ, 1972“Stages in the development of the object concept”Cognition147–55.
8.
BowerT G RWishartJ, 1972“The effects of motor skill on object permanence”Cognition128–35.
9.
BremnerJ GBryantP E, 1977“Place versus response as the basis of spatial errors made by young infants”Journal of Experimental Child Psychology23162–171.
10.
BrownI E, 1973Inside is not Behindunpublished honours thesis, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland.
11.
BrunskillA, 1970Some Studies of Object Permanence with Monkeysunpublished honours thesis, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland.
12.
ButterworthG E, 1977“Object disappearance and error in Piaget's stage IV taskJournal of Experimental Child Psychology23391–405.
13.
CormanHEscalonaS K, 1969“Stages of sensory-motor development: A replication study”Merrill Palmer Quarterly15351–361.
14.
de SchönenSBowerT G R, 1978“The understanding of spatial relations”paper read at the Biannual Round Table on Cognitive Development in Infancy, Paris.
15.
de SchönenSBowerT G R, 1980“Recherche d'un objet du sujet chez un bébé de 3 à 11 mois”Travaux du Centre d'Étude des Processus Cognitifs et du Language, Paris.
16.
ElkindDSameroffA J, 1970“Developmental Psychology”Annual Review of Psychology21191–238.
17.
Gouin-DécarieT, 1969“A study of the mental and emotional development of the thalidomide child” in Determinants of Infant Behaviour Ed. FossBvolume IV, pp 167–187.
18.
GratchG, 1975“Recent studies based on Piaget's view of the object concept” in Infant Perception: From Sensation to Cognition Eds CohenL BSalapatekP (New York: Academic Press) volume 2 pp 33–49.
19.
HarrisP L, 1971“Examination and search in infants”British Journal of Psychology62429–473.
20.
HarrisP L, 1973“Preservative errors in search by young infants”Child Development4428–33.
21.
HarrisP L, 1974“Perservative search at a visibly empty place by young infants”Journal of Experimental Child Psychology18535–542.
22.
KramerJ AHillK TCohenL B, 1975“Infants development of object permanence: A refined methodology and new evidence for Piaget's hypothesised ordinarily”Child Development46149–155.
23.
NeilsonI E, 1978A Reinterpretation of the Development of the Object Concept in InfancyPhD Thesis, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland.
24.
PiagetJ, 1954The Child's Construction of Reality (New York: Basic Books).
25.
SchafferR, 1971The Growth of Sociability (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books).
26.
UzgirisI EHuntJ McV, 1966An Instrument for Assessing Infant Psychological Development Mimeographed paper, University of Illinois, Urbana IL, USA.
27.
UzgirisIHuntJ McV, 1975Assessment in Infancy: Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press).
28.
WebbRMassarRNadolnyT, 1972“Information and strategy in young child's search for hidden objects”Child Development4391–104.
29.
WillattsP, 1979“Adjustment of reaching to change in object position by young infants”Child Development50911–913.
30.
WishartJBowerT G R, 1977The Comprehension of Spatial Relations in Infantsunpublished manuscript, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland.
31.
WishartJ, 1979The Development of the Object Concept in InfancyPhD thesis, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland.
32.
WishartJBowerT G R, 1982“The development of spatial understanding in infantsJournal of Experimental Child Psychology in press.
