Object Permanence
Object permanence is a fundamental psychological concept that posits that objects continue to exist even when they are not currently visible. This concept plays a crucial role in developmental psychology, particularly in understanding how infants and young children perceive the world around them. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget was a pioneer in this field, conducting influential studies in the mid-20th century which suggested that children begin to grasp object permanence around nine months of age. However, more recent research indicates that infants as young as three to four months may exhibit some awareness of this concept, leading to ongoing debates among psychologists.
Object permanence is closely linked to cognitive abilities such as memory and problem-solving. Piaget identified different substages of development in the sensorimotor phase, where infants gradually learn to understand causality and search for hidden objects. In the late 1980s, researcher Renee Baillargeon introduced new methodologies that suggested younger infants might possess an understanding of object permanence, challenging earlier notions from Piaget's work. Additionally, studies have shown that various nonhuman species, including certain birds and mammals, also demonstrate an understanding of object permanence, indicating a possible evolutionary basis for this cognitive ability. Despite significant advancements in research, the origins and developmental pathways of object permanence continue to be areas of active exploration and debate within the field of psychology.
On this Page
Object Permanence
Object permanence is the concept that objects continue to exist when the object can no longer be observed. Object permanence is a core concept of developmental psychology, which is the study of the psychological development of infants and children. Pioneering Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget is credited with conducting the first studies on object permanence in infants. Piaget’s research, published in the mid-twentieth century, held that children begin to understand object permanence at around nine months of age, though subsequent research suggests that children as young as three to four months may have some understanding of permanence. The development of object permanence is still controversial, without a clear consensus among psychologists.
The concept of object permanence touches on deeper psychological and philosophical issues regarding the nature of physical existence and causality. In addition, object permanence depends on the ability to identify and remember information about the environment and the behavior of other beings and, therefore, has links to the study of memory. Studies indicate that a variety of nonhuman species also understand the concept of permanence, including certain species of monkey, apes, birds, dogs, and cats.
Background
The concept of object permanence is associated with Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, who conducted pioneering experiments on the subject in the early twentieth century. Piaget’s theories on developmental psychology were guided by his belief in equilibration, in which a person’s mental development is marked by periods of dissatisfaction with one’s worldview, due to learning new information, forcing a person to adjust his or her worldview in an effort to regain equilibrium, or satisfaction with one’s understanding of the universe. This was one of the foundational concepts in Piaget’s proposal of the "stages of development" in human infants.
According to Piaget, object permanence is part of the sensorimotor stage of child development, which occurs between birth and eighteen months of age. Among his most important publications on the subject was the 1954 book The Construction of Reality in the Child, originally published in 1937 under the title La construction du réel chez l’enfant. Piaget’s theories on permanence were based on a series of experiments in which he would hide a toy from an infant, while the infant watched the toy being hidden and then study the reaction and search strategies of the infant. Based on the infant’s ability to search for the object, Piaget attempted to determine when, in development, the infant began to understand that the object still existed and could be found where it had been hidden.
Piaget identified six substages of development in the sensorimotor stage. During the reflexes stage (birth–1 month), babies learn to use the body and have little awareness of objects beyond themselves. During the primary circular reaction stage (1–3 months), babies develop a passing interest in objects and follow objects briefly with their eyes. During the secondary circular reactions stage (4–8 months), babies reach for objects that are visible but partially hidden but seem to forget about objects that are completely hidden. During the coordination of secondary circular reactions stage (8–12 months), the child begins to understand causality and will search for an object that is hidden within their view. During the tertiary circular reactions stage (12–18 months), the child can solve more complex problems regarding objects that appear and disappear from their sensory sphere. Full understanding of object permanence comes between eighteen and twenty-four months, when the child is able to remember the object and to imagine situations in which the object has been moved, manipulated, or hidden in various ways.
Impact
By the 1970s, psychological researchers had begun to identify flaws in Piaget’s system of infant development and his methods of conducting experimental research. Because Piaget’s experiments were based on a child’s ability to search for a hidden object, researchers needed to determine whether Piaget’s experiments revealed a lack of understanding of object permanence or whether the experiments indicated a failure in the capability to plan or conduct a search for a hidden object.
Psychologist Renee Baillargeon and colleagues attempted to address this experimental problem by creating a new method of studying object permanence in children in the late 1980s. The experimental design associated with Baillargeon created a system in which objects were hidden and presented to infants in two ways; a "possible" scenario in which the object behaved according to physical laws, and an "impossible" scenario, in which objects seemed to violate physical expectations when appearing. These experiments indicated that children tended to pay more attention to the "impossible" scenario, which Baillargeon and colleagues interpreted as evidence that the children understood the physical existence of the object and were confused by seeing the object violate physical rules.
Baillargeon and colleagues, including Julie DeVos, published articles between 1986 and 1991 that indicated children as young as three to four months may have some concept of object permanence.
Research on object permanence in nonhuman species has helped to link developmental stages to broader evolutionary and instinctual patterns that help animals survive in their environments. Research studies have found evidence of object permanence in dogs, cats, and a number of bird species. Some bird species have evolved the capability to hide food that will be consumed days or weeks later, and these species must therefore understand that hidden objects continue to exist and must be able to remember where they are hidden.
One of the most pressing issues in object permanence research concerns the origin of the idea of permanence. Some researchers have proposed that a basic understanding of object permanence is part of the innate knowledge present in the human brain and is, therefore, largely instinctual. According to this theory, a child is born with a concept of permanence but gradually develops the ability to demonstrate this understanding over the first three to eight months of life. Alternatively, other researchers believe that object permanence is a learned concept that develops through the interplay of habituation and novelty as a child explores his or her environment.
Bibliography
Baillargeon, Renee, and Julie DeVos. "Object Permanence in Young Infants: Further Evidence." Child Development 62 (1991): 1227–1246. Print.
Carey, S. The Origin of Concepts. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.
Charles, Eric P., and Susan M. Rivera. "Object Permanence and Method of Disappearance: Looking Measures Further Contradict Reaching Measures." Developmental Science 12.6 (2009): 991–1006. Print.
Cherry, Kendra. "Object Permanence." Reviewed by David Susman. VeryWell Mind, 26 Apr. 2023, www.verywellmind.com/what-is-object-permanence-2795405. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.
Franz, A., and J. Triesch. "A Unified Computational Model of the Development of Object Unity, Object Permanence, and Occluded Object Trajectory Perception." Infant Behavior and Development 33.4 (2010): 635–653. Print.
Miller, Holly C., et al. "Object Permanence in Dogs: Invisible Displacement in a Rotation Task." Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16.1 (2009): 150–155. Print.
Piaget, J. The Construction of Reality in the Child. New York: Basic, 1954. Print.
Sammons, Aidan. "Object Permanence in Infancy: Challenges to the Piagetian Account." Psychlotron. Aidan Sammons, 2008. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Siegler, Robert S, et al. "Rethinking Infant Knowledge: Toward an Adaptive Process Account of Successes and Failures in Object Permanence Tasks." Psychological Review 104.4 (1997): 686–713. Print.
Ujfalussy, Dorottya, Adam Miklosi, and Thomas Bugnyar. "Ontogeny of Object Permanence in a Non-Storing Corvid Species, the Jackdaw (Corvus monedula)." Animal Cognition 16.3 (2013): 405–416. Print.