Discuss The Evidence That: Infants Know That Objects Do Not Disappear When Out Of Sight Before They Pass Piagets Test Of Object Permanence.

Discuss The Evidence That: Infants Know That Objects Do Not Disappear When Out Of Sight Before They Pass Piagets Test Of Object Permanence.

Object permanence is a term coined by psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) in reference to the belief that infants under 6 months old are unable to comprehend the intrinsic nature of objects, and thus have no awareness that unobserved objects continue to exist. Subsequent inferences include that infants of this age would be unable to comprehend that objects exist continually in space and time, that only one solid object can occupy one space at the same time, and that if an object has been seen at point ‘A’ and later at point ‘B’ that it must have undergone motion between the two points. Instead the theory claims that the logic and understanding of an infant under 6 months old relies solely on their sensory perceptions. Piaget categorizes infants according to cognitive development, labelling the period between the age of 0 and 2 years old the sensorimotor period. It is during this period that infants undergo significant cognitive development and their capabilities to deal with external stimulations improve. In order to pass Piaget’s test of object permanence an active search for unobserved objects must be witnessed, an event which Piaget claims will not be achieved by infants under 6 months of age.

However there have been numerous observations and findings that have brought Piaget’s claims under significant scrutiny, giving strength to the counter-belief that object permanence does exist in younger infants. In 1971 Bower et al conducted an experiment (cited in Eysenck, 1998) where infants watched a moving screen pass across a stationary object, while their heart rates were monitored to display any signs of interest or excitement at any stage in the sequence. In condition one, shown to one half of the infants, the object remained after the screen had passed, whereas in condition two the object was removed from behind the screen while unobservable, and therefore was missing after the screen had passed. If Piaget’s theories of object permanence were correct, then...