Twenty-four- and 30-month-old children were presented with a picture that showed the location of a hidden toy and were then asked to find the toy. The 30-month olds, but not the 24-month-olds, were successful in retrieving the toy. Concludes that 24-month olds did not interpret the pictures as representations of reality. (BC)

Infants know that humans are exempt from some of the principles that govern the motion of inanimate objects: for instance, humans can be caused to move without being struck. In the current study, we report that infants nevertheless do apply some of the same principles to both humans and objects, where appropriate. Five-month-old infants expect…

A hypothesized developmental sequence of agent use in pretending was tested in 36 infants between 14 and 24 months of age and was compared with the development of object permanence. (JMB)

Three experiments test object permanenece in 3 1/2- and 4 1/2-month-old infants, and use an impossible-possible-habituation event format. The 4 1/2-month-olds, and the 3 1/2-month-olds who were fast habituators, look reliably longer at the impossible than at the possible event. Results seriously question Piaget's (1954) claims regarding the age at…

Changes in children's categorization behavior between 15 and 21 months of age and the relation of these changes to developments in language, object permanence, and means-end understanding are reported. (PCB)

Examined the role of perceptual-motor development in a typical Stage IV task. The performance of ten infants was compared on a Stage IV object permanence task when a cloth cover was used and when a small card cover was used. (JMB)

Two experiments investigated 8-, 10-, and 12-month-old infants' levels of searching for mothers, strangers, and objects. Found that, overall, 10- and 12-month-old infants had higher levels of searching for mothers, whereas youngest infants showed no differences for searching. This discrepancy is likely due to social cognitive development and…

Eight- to 12-month-olds might make A-not-B errors, knowing the object is in B but searching at A because of ancillary (attention, inhibitory, or motor memory) deficits, or they might genuinely believe the object is in A (conceptual deficit). This study examined how diligently infants searched for a hidden object they never found. An object was…

Reports two experiments which were designed to establish whether errors in infants' manual searches for objects are caused by changes in the location of an object or by the change in the relation between old and new hiding places. (JMB)

The development of the concept of object permanence was investigated with eight infants with cleft lip/palate and four nonimpaired infants. Superior performance of the cleft lip/palate group was found, possibly due to increased environmental stimulation provided by parents. (DB)

Critically evaluates habituation and related models for studying infant memory, focusing on methodological and substantive limitations which restrict the derivation of information from them. The essay considers existing research on the development of object permanence as an alternative source of information about infant memory. (Author/DB)

Examined event-based memory in three groups of children between ages 14 and 25 months. Found that search task success was general in oldest group while performance was similar on a task in which success "may" have been due to recalling an object-removal event and one in which success could "only" have been due to recall of…

The relationship between early language and cognition was studied in 20 children between 1 and 2 years of age. Four cognitive areas were tested: object permanence, means-end, play, and imitation. Results indicated that specific cognitive skills seem temporarily associated with some linguistic abilities, although attainment of skills can be…

Research on children's understanding of video has shown seeming contradictions. Fourteen-month-olds imitate actions seen on TV (Meltzoff, 1988) and 18-month-olds are reminded of an event by watching video (Sheffield & Hudson, 2003) but 24-month-olds fail at a video-mediated object-retrieval task requiring dual representational understanding…

A series of studies focused on (1) the evolution of the notion of identity of objects among infants up to 15 months of age and (2) the changing rules by which this development may be understood. Six identity tasks were presented to 60 infants divided into five age groups: 5, 7, 9, 12, and 15 months. Two objects were used in all tasks. In the first…