1. Piaget and the Study of Object Permanence
Presented by:
Kasey Buchanan
Sarah Hughes

2. Jean Piaget Born: 1896, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland
At age 10, he published an article on the albino sparrow
At age 15, Piaget set out to find a way to connect his philosophy with science. Started his work in epistemology (philosophical questions concerning the origin of knowledge)
Earned his doctorate in natural sciences at age 21.
Decided to study the development of the mind in order to answer epistemological questions (genetic epistemology).
Married Valentine Châtenay and they had their first child in 1952, which prompted Piaget’s study of the cognitive behaviors of infants.
He later replicated his studies with his children with more children at the University of Geneva
Started his studies of infant cognitive development with his own children, then later replicated his studies with many more children at the University of Geneva.

3. Theory of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor Intelligence (birth-2 yrs): Period during which children organize their perceptions of the world (schemas). This is the stage during which object permanence is developed. Requires the ability to form a mental representation of an object.
Preoperational Thought (2-7 yrs): Period during which children learn to use symbols and internal images. Thinking is illogical and not as systematic as that of adults. This is the stage during which conservation is developed

4. Theory of Cognitive Development (CONT.)
Concrete Operations (7-11 yrs):Stage during which children develop the ability to think systematically, but they are unable to understand hypothetical or abstract ideas.
Formal Operations (11-adulthood): Stage during which children and young adults learn to think systematically regarding abstract concepts.

5. SensoriMotor Sub-Stages
Reflexes (birth-1 mo): babies construct their schemas of the environment, which at first, consist of reflexes, such as the sucking reflex.
Assimilation: using current schemes to interpret the external world. very prominent during this stage.
Accommodation: changing old ideas or making new ones after noticing that the current idea does not completely describe the environment.begins during this stage.
Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 mo): occurs when a baby chances upon a new experience and tries to repeat it. Occurs only within the baby’s own body.
Provide example of assimilation: ie. a child seeing a new kind of dog that he’s never seen before, and calling it “dog”. Incorporates the idea that there are different types of dogs into his schema of dogs.
Example of accommodation:

6. Sensorimotor Sub-Stages (CONT.)
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 mo): child chances upon a new experience outside of his/her own body and tries to repeat it. Ex. mobile
4. Coordination of Secondary Schemes (8-12 mo): actions become more differentiated. Child learns to coordinate two separate schemes to get a desired result. Ex.obstacles
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 mo): child experiments with different actions to observe the different outcomes.learn on their own, without anyone teaching them. Ex. throwing things
Secondary Schemes: pushing something out of the way to get a toy that the child wants
Tertiary Circular Reactions: child banging on a table sometimes harder, sometimes softer in order to hear the different sounds that came out.

7. Sensorimotor Sub-Stages (CONT.)
6. Symbolic Thought(18 mo-2 yrs): child begins to think out situations more internally before they act. Capable of deferred imitation (imitation of models hours or days after observing them).

8. Stage Five: tertiary Circular Reactions
“Hence, the search for the object as yet makes allowance only for observed displacements and positions in which the object has actually been seen” (Piaget, 1954, 70)
Piaget provided an example of Tertiary Circular Reactions when describing his son, Laurent, who hit a table many times, sometimes hard, sometimes softly in order to hear the different sounds his actions made.
Piaget says that in the sensorimotor stage, children are like little scientists exploring the world. That is exemplified very clearly here.
We included additional information on stages 5 and 6 because these are the stages that we anticipated the participants would be in.
. “Hence, the search for the object as yet makes allowance only for observed displacements and positions in which the object has actually been seen” (Piaget, 1954, 70). In this stage, learning becomes more of a practical experience. In the last stage, “the child becomes capable of constructing objects when the displacements are not all visible”

9. Stage Six: Symbolic Thought
When Piaget put a chain (the desired object) in a matchbox, his daughter, Lucienne, tried the two schemes she already possessed in order to retrieve the chain. When neither worked, she stopped and thought out what actions would work (symbolizing the action she needed when she opened/shut her mouth wider and wider), then was able to retrieve the chain.
Deferred imitation: Piaget’s daughter, Jacqueline, watched a little boy have a tantrum. She watched him acting out, then the next day, imitated his actions.

10. Object Permanence
The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not able to be observed.
“The conservation of the object is, among other things, a function of its localization; that is, the child simultaneously learns that the object does not cease to exist when it disappears and he learns where it does go”
During sub-stages 1 and 2, children have no sense of object permanence
At sub-stage 3, children begin to gain a sense of object permanence. They can find partially hidden objects. For example, they will look to find a toy if it has fallen away from them. They are unable to find an object if it is completely hidden.
Substage 3: can find partially hidden objects, look to the direction an object has fallen if it falls out of their line of vision. Cannot find objects that are completely hidden.
Substage 4: can’t follow a series of displacements. (put in A, found, put in B, the child still looks to place A)
“The conservation of the object is, among other things, a function of its localization; that is, the child simultaneously learns that the object does not cease to exist when it disappears and he learns where it does go”

11. Object Permanence (CONT.)
At sub-stage 4, children develop a genuine sense of object permanence. The child can find a completely hidden object.Here, a child is unable to follow a series of displacements.
At sub-stage 5, children can follow a series of displacements as long as they are visible to the child. Learning becomes more of a practical experience.
At sub-stage 6, the child is able to follow invisible displacements.

12. Purpose of Our Research
To study specific aspects of object permanence.Our questions were:
(1). What indicators of object permanence appear in a child who is 18 months old? What indicators of object permanence appear in a child who is 2 years old? Do the indicators align with or contradict findings from Piaget?
(2) Can children be taught object permanence in a limited period of time?
Our hypothesis was that we would be able to determine what stage each participant was in by using a test for object permanence and observing the characteristics they displayed. We believed that if they did not show object permanence, we would be able to teach the participants some aspect of permanence.

13. Our Procedure
Equipment: blanket, a toy that the participant enjoys playing with (Minnie Mouse doll)
Part One:
Make contact and introduce both researchers to the child. Ask the child to help with a school project and explain what they will be asked to do.
Researcher will place the toy underneath the blanket, then ask the child “Where’s Minnie?” “Can you find Minnie for me?”
Record the child’s response and behaviors. Score them accordingly. If the child knew where to look for the toy, ask “How did you know it was there?” Record their answer.
If the child cannot find the stuffed animal, remove the blanket and give the toy to her, then continue with Part Two.

14. Procedure (CONT.) Part Two:
Ask the child to help with the school project again and explain what they will be asked to do. Tell the child “I will hide Minnie Mouse under the blanket and try to find her. Then you can try it too!”
Researcher will hide the toy under the blanket and find it several times. Then we will give the toy to the child and let her hide and find the toy.
Now ask the child, “Will you find the toy for us now?”. A researcher will hide the toy under the blanket again and let the child try to find it. Record her responses and score accordingly.

15. Scoring
We developed a Point System in order to accurately record the participants’ responses.
Each substage of the Sensori-Motor Stage had a corresponding point. The reactions of the participants to the hidden object were interpreted and scored according to the characteristics of each substage that they exhibited.

16. Point System Rubric Developmental Stage Piaget’s Description
Corresponding Point
Reflex Acts
Children are able to recognize objects but this is a component of assimilation and discovery, and does not lead to object permanence (Piaget, 1954, 5) 1
Primary Circular Reactions
*Same as above 2
Secondary Circular Reactions
Child performs “limited searching” (Piaget 1965, 18) for large objects. He “Does not know the mechanism of his own actions and hence does not dissociate them from the things themselves” (Piaget, 1954, 42) 3
Co-ordinating Secondary Schemes
Children are “unable to conceive sequential positions of the vanished object” (Piaget, 1954, 48) 4
Tertiary Circular Reactions*
“The search for the object as yet makes allowance only for observed displacements and positions in which the object has actually been seen” (Piaget, 1954, 70) 5
Symbolic Thought*
“The child becomes capable of constructing objects when the displacements are not all visible” (Piaget, 1954, 79) 6
*These are the two substages we hypothesize that the children will be in

17. Participants 1 Female Age 3 (Participant 1)
1 Female Age 18 months (Participant 2)
Kasey interacted with the kids because they were familiar with her, while Sarah watched/recorded

18. Participant One’s REsults
Participant Number
Gender
Age
Object found?
Point system describing current developmental stage
Additional Observations/Comments 1 F
3 yrs
Yes
6 + (showed signs of having entered preoperational thought
When asked where Minnie was, she replied “Minnie was sleeping” (sign of animism)

19. Participant Two’s Results
Gender
Age
Object Found?
Point system describing current developmental stage
Additional Observations/Comments 2 F
18 months
Yes 5
Participant 2 attempted to put Minnie under the original blanket used; she did not like the idea of using a new blanket or spot. Also played peek-a-boo with the blanket signifying that she is still in the sensori-motor stage

20. Video!
view

21. Conclusions We were right!
Both children fit into the estimated substages of Piaget’s theory
Piaget was also right!
We found that other observations of Piaget’s studies were also true.
Animism
Deferred imitation
Deferred imitation- Jessie wanting to do what Molly did with the white blanket and minnie instead of with her own blanket and toy

22. Additional Observations
We found it interesting that both participants fit into a specific stage of Piaget. However, both children showed signs of moving onto another substage of Piaget. They also showed signs, particularly Participant 1, of other aspects of Piaget’s theory of development.

23. Possible Errors
We had a small pool of participants so the results may not be indicative of the developmental stages of all children their ages.
The participants were related and raised in the same environment so again, it may not be indicative of the more general population
They weren’t separated enough during the testing.
The testing was completed in the evening so both participants were tired and lost interest very quickly.

24. Reflections Our hypothesis was correct.
Originally thought they were in stages 5 and 6 and they were.
Both participants showed signs of other stages of Piaget’s theory of development as well as other characteristics of development.
Piaget’s experiment on object permanence involved more children who weren’t related to each other.
However, we were not able to test out the second part of our hypothesis because both children already had developed object permanence.

25. Citations
Crain, W. C. (1980). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. Piaget’s
Cognitive-Developmental Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Piaget, J. (1954). The construction of reality in the child. New York: Basic Books.
Presnell, F. (1999). Jean Piaget. Retrieved October 06, 2016 from