Rethinking infant knowledge: toward an adaptive process account of successes and failures in object permanence tasks.

Infants seem sensitive to hidden objects in habituation tasks at 3.5 months but fail to retrieve hidden objects until 8 months. The authors first consider principle-based accounts of these successes and failures, in which early successes imply knowledge of principles and failures are attributed to ancillary deficits. One account is that infants younger than 8 months have the object permanence principle but lack means-ends abilities. To test this, 7-month-olds were trained on means-ends behaviors and were tested on retrieval of visible and occluded toys. Means-ends demands were the same, yet infants made more toy-guided retrievals in the visible case. The authors offer an adaptive process account in which knowledge is graded and embedded in specific behavioral processes. Simulation models that learn gradually to represent occluded objects show how this approach can account for success and failure in object permanence tasks without assuming principles and ancillary deficits.

[1]  J. Haldane.  The interaction of nature and nurture. , 1946, Annals of eugenics.

[2]  J. Piaget.  The construction of reality in the child , 1954 .

[3]  Juan Pascual-Leone,et al.  A mathematical model for the transition rule in Piaget's developmental stages , 1970 .

[4]  D. N. Spinelli,et al.  Visual Experience Modifies Distribution of Horizontally and Vertically Oriented Receptive Fields in Cats , 1970, Science.

[5]  L. Cohen,et al.  A methodological investigation of Piaget's theory of object concept development in the sensory-motor period. , 1970, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[6]  R. Shepard,et al.  Second-order isomorphism of internal representations: Shapes of states ☆ , 1970 .

[7]  G. F. Cooper,et al.  Development of the Brain depends on the Visual Environment , 1970, Nature.

[8]  W. F. Landers,et al.  Stage IV of Piaget's theory of infant's object concepts: a longitudinal study. , 1971, Child development.

[9]  John H. Flavell,et al.  Stage-related properties of cognitive development , 1971 .

[10]  T. G. R. Bower,et al.  The effects of motor skill on object permanence , 1972 .

[11]  T. Bower,et al.  Stages in the development of the object concept , 1972 .

[12]  W F Evans,et al.  The stage IV error in Piaget's theory of object concept development: difficulties in object conceptualization or spatial localization? , 1972, Child development.

[13]  G. Gratch.  A study of the relative dominance of vision and touch in six-month-old infants. , 1972, Child development.

[14]  Allen Newell,et al.  Human Problem Solving. , 1973 .

[15]  P. Harris.  Perseverative search at a visibly empty place by young infants. , 1974 .

[16]  W. Singer,et al.  Modification of direction selectivity of neurons in the visual cortex of kittens , 1975, Brain Research.

[17]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Semantic integration in children's reconstruction of narrative sequences , 1976, Cognitive Psychology.

[18]  G. Butterworth.  Object disappearance and error in Piaget's Stage IV task. , 1977 .

[19]  R. Davidson,et al.  Brain mechanisms subserving self-generated imagery: electrophysiological specificity and patterning. , 1977, Psychophysiology.

[20]  Joseph E LeDoux,et al.  Information processing of visual stimuli in an ‘extinguished’ field , 1979, Nature.

[21]  B. Mittelman,et al.  On control. , 1979, Dental management.

[22]  J. Fuster.  Prefrontal Cortex , 2018 .

[23]  F. Keil.  Constraints on knowledge and cognitive development. , 1981 .

[24]  Leslie G. Ungerleider.  Two cortical visual systems , 1982 .

[25]  R. Mansfield,et al.  Analysis of visual behavior , 1982 .

[26]  P. Salapatek,et al.  Infant visual perception , 1983 .

[27]  Marshall M. Haith,et al.  Infancy and developmental psychobiology , 1983 .

[28]  A. J. Mistlin,et al.  Neurones responsive to faces in the temporal cortex: studies of functional organization, sensitivity to identity and relation to perception. , 1984, Human neurobiology.

[29]  J. Bremner,et al.  Piagetian Stage IV Search Errors with an Object That is Directly Accessible Both Visually and Manually , 1984, Perception.

[30]  C. Hofsten.  Developmental changes in the organization of prereaching movements , 1984 .

[31]  M. Mishkin,et al.  An early and a late developing system for learning and retention in infant monkeys. , 1984, Behavioral neuroscience.

[32]  Robert J. Sternberg,et al.  Mechanisms of cognitive development , 1984 .

[33]  C. Sophian,et al.  Infants' search for visible objects: implications for the interpretation of early search errors. , 1985, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[34]  A. Diamond,et al.  Development of the ability to use recall to guide action, as indicated by infants' performance on AB. , 1985, Child development.

[35]  A. J. Mistlin,et al.  Visual cells in the temporal cortex sensitive to face view and gaze direction , 1985, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[36]  Geoffrey E. Hinton,et al.  Learning internal representations by error propagation , 1986 .

[37]  B. Hood,et al.  Reaching in the dark to an object's remembered position: Evidence for object permanence in 5-month-old infants , 1986 .

[38]  James L. McClelland,et al.  PDP models and general issues in cognitive science , 1986 .

[39]  Klaus Willmes,et al.  Patterns of regional cerebral blood flow related to memorizing of high and low imagery words—An emission computer tomography study , 1987, Neuropsychologia.

[40]  J. Maunsell,et al.  Visual processing in monkey extrastriate cortex. , 1987, Annual review of neuroscience.

[41]  R. Baillargeon,et al.  Where's the Rabbit? 5.5-Month-Old Infants' Representation of the Height of a Hidden Object , 1987 .

[42]  W. Greenough,et al.  Experience and brain development. , 1987, Child development.

[43]  H. Wellman,et al.  Infant search and object permanence: a meta-analysis of the A-not-B error. , 1987, Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.

[44]  A. Young,et al.  Face recognition without awareness , 1987 .

[45]  A. Young,et al.  Faces Interfere with Name Classification in a Prosopagnosic Patient , 1987, Cortex.

[46]  R. Baillargeon.  Object permanence in 3½- and 4½-month-old infants. , 1987 .

[47]  R. Baillargeon.  Young infants' reasoning about the physical and spatial properties of a hidden object , 1987 .

[48]  James L. McClelland.  Parallel Distributed Processing: Implications for Cognition and Development , 1988 .

[49]  M. Farah.  Is visual imagery really visual? Overlooked evidence from neuropsychology. , 1988, Psychological review.

[50]  Y. Miyashita,et al.  Neuronal correlate of pictorial short-term memory in the primate temporal cortexYasushi Miyashita , 1988, Nature.

[51]  A. Leslie.  The necessity of illusion: Perception and thought in infancy , 1988 .

[52]  Y. Miyashita.  Neuronal correlate of visual associative long-term memory in the primate temporal cortex , 1988, Nature.

[53]  Renee L Baillargeon,et al.  Evidence of Location Memory in 8-Month-Old Infants in a Nonsearch AB Task. , 1988 .

[54]  L. Weiskrantz,et al.  Thought Without Language , 1988 .

[55]  R. Siegler,et al.  Mechanisms of cognitive development. , 1989, Annual review of psychology.

[56]  Renee L Baillargeon,et al.  Location memory in 8-month-old infants in a non-search AB task: Further evidence , 1989 .

[57]  Ina C. Uzgiris,et al.  Assessment in Infancy: Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development , 1989 .

[58]  T. Robbins.  The prefrontal cortex, 2nd edn. J. M. Fuster. Raven Press, New York, 1989. Price:$86.50 , 1990 .

[59]  Renée Baillargeon,et al.  Why do young infants fail to search for hidden objects? , 1990, Cognition.

[60]  R. Morris.  Parallel Distributed Processing: Implications for Psychology and Neurobiology , 1990 .

[61]  Jeffrey L. Elman,et al.  Finding Structure in Time , 1990, Cogn. Sci..

[62]  Michael I. Jordan.  Attractor dynamics and parallelism in a connectionist sequential machine , 1990 .

[63]  James L. McClelland,et al.  On the control of automatic processes: a parallel distributed processing account of the Stroop effect. , 1990, Psychological review.

[64]  A. Diamond.  Neuropsychological insights into the meaning of object concept development. , 1991 .

[65]  David F. Bjorklund,et al.  Children's strategies: Contemporary views of cognitive development. , 1991 .

[66]  M. Farah,et al.  Unconscious perception of “extinguished” visual stimuli: Reassessing the evidence , 1991, Neuropsychologia.

[67]  R. Baillargeon,et al.  Object permanence in young infants: further evidence. , 1991, Child development.

[68]  A. Karmiloff-Smith.  Beyond modularity: Innate constraints and developmental change. , 1991 .

[69]  P. Rochat,et al.  Object representation guides infants' reaching in the dark. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[70]  Mark H. Johnson,et al.  CONSPEC and CONLERN: a two-process theory of infant face recognition. , 1991, Psychological review.

[71]  Renée Baillargeon,et al.  Reasoning about the height and location of a hidden object in 4.5- and 6.5-month-old infants , 1991, Cognition.

[72]  M. Just,et al.  From the SelectedWorks of Marcel Adam Just 1992 A capacity theory of comprehension : Individual differences in working memory , 2017 .

[73]  M. Goodale,et al.  Separate visual pathways for perception and action , 1992, Trends in Neurosciences.

[74]  J. Mandler.  How to build a baby: II. Conceptual primitives. , 1992, Psychological review.

[75]  P. Green.  Biology and Cognitive Development: the Case of Face Recognition, Mark H. Johnson, John Morton. Blackwell, Oxford (1991), x, +180. Price £35.00 hardback, £10.95 paperback , 1992 .

[76]  Robbie Case,et al.  The role of the frontal lobes in the regulation of cognitive development , 1992, Brain and Cognition.

[77]  E. Spelke,et al.  Origins of knowledge. , 1992, Psychological review.

[78]  E. Thelen,et al.  The transition to reaching: mapping intention and intrinsic dynamics. , 1993, Child development.

[79]  M J Farah,et al.  Dissociated overt and covert recognition as an emergent property of a lesioned neural network. , 1993, Psychological review.

[80]  G. Halford.  Children's Understanding: The Development of Mental Models , 1993 .

[81]  Linda B. Smith,et al.  A dynamic systems approach to development: Applications. , 1993 .

[82]  E. Spelke.  Initial knowledge: six suggestions , 1994, Cognition.

[83]  L. Schauble,et al.  Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science. , 1994 .

[84]  R. Baillargeon.  How Do Infants Learn About the Physical World? , 1994 .

[85]  C R Olson,et al.  Object-centered direction selectivity in the macaque supplementary eye field , 1995, Science.

[86]  Linda B. Smith,et al.  A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action , 2007, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[87]  Kim Plunkett,et al.  Developing object permanence: A connectionist model , 1995 .

[88]  R. Shillcock,et al.  Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society , 1995 .

[89]  Loukia D. Loukopoulos,et al.  Planning reaches by evaluating stored postures. , 1995, Psychological review.

[90]  J. Elman,et al.  Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development , 1996 .

[91]  B. Bertenthal,et al.  Origins and early development of perception, action, and representation. , 1996, Annual review of psychology.

[92]  J. Reznick,et al.  Response modality affects human infant delayed-response performance. , 1996, Child development.

[93]  Seth Krantz,et al.  Discussion , 1998, Neuroscience.

[94]  T. Ruffman,et al.  Why do infants make A not B errors in a search task, yet show memory for the location of hidden objects in a nonsearch task? , 1998, Developmental psychology.

[95]  R. Baillargeon,et al.  Object Individuation in Infancy: The Use of Featural Information in Reasoning about Occlusion Events , 1998, Cognitive Psychology.