Cognitive Development - Object Permanence

[Brendon Fulton]

Is Piaget’s search task a valid test of whether a child has developed object permanence?

• Does a child’s failure to search mean that it has no idea that the object still exists?
  
• Might this task be measuring something else instead?

[juppg001]

I think that Piaget's task is valid and the reason for this is that I feel that the four stages are valid towards the childs age and ability.

I don't think that the child's failure to search indicates that the child feels that the object no longer excist however due to Piaget's thought behind the four stages i believe the the chilren are just unable to perform logical operations with solid objects I feel that this is correct because between the age of 7-11 (concrete operational) the children can perform logical taks but they are still unable to solve transitivity problems. I feel that Piaget is right regarding the age of the child but as said even older children struggle performing tasks and solving problems.

One example which i can think of that he could be measuring how observent the child is but at that young age the child does not tend to think logically until about the age of 7-11

[dthorn]

No, I think that it could be due to a lack of object permanence or perhaps a child’s failure to search could be due to a number of different zeitgeibers including:
• A sudden loss of interest.
• The child could suffer from a limited working memory.
• Could have the inability to co-ordinate search movements.

Also, the child might have child permanence (Competence) but not be able to search (Performance).
Competence = Underlying ability to do something.
Performance = whether someone actually does something.
Piaget’s search task mixes up (conflates) competence and performance, leading him to underestimate infant’s abilities.