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Related Experiment Videos

Are A-not-B errors caused by a belief about object location?

Ted Ruffman1, Lance Slade, Juan Carlos Sandino

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, East Sussex, UK. tedr@sussex.ac.uk

Child Development
|February 8, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Infants may make A-not-B errors due to memory or attention issues, or a genuine belief the object remains in location A. This study suggests infants often believe the object is in A, indicating conceptual deficits contribute to these errors.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Infant Studies

Background:

  • The A-not-B error is a common finding in infant object permanence research.
  • Existing theories propose ancillary deficits (attentional, inhibitory, motor) or conceptual deficits as causes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether infants genuinely believe an object is in location A during A-not-B errors.
  • To differentiate between conceptual and ancillary deficit explanations for the A-not-B error.

Main Methods:

  • Infants (8-12 months) participated in two tasks involving hiding an object.
  • Task 1: Object hidden in location A twice, then in location B.
  • Task 2: Object placed beside A twice, then beside B.

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Main Results:

  • Infants committed more A-not-B errors in Task 1 (standard hiding).
  • Perseverating infants searched diligently in location A, not B.
  • Infants' search behavior suggested a belief the object remained in A.

Conclusions:

  • Findings support the role of conceptual deficits in the A-not-B error.
  • Both conceptual and ancillary deficits likely contribute to A-not-B error manifestation in infants.