Early knowledge of object motion: continuity and inertia

Experiments investigated whether infants infer that a hidden, freely moving object will move continuously and smoothly. Infants aged 6 and 10 months, like the 4-month-old infants in previous experiments, inferred that the object's path would be connected and unobstructed, in accord with the principle of continuity. In contrast, 4- and 6-month-old infants did not appear to infer that the object's path would be smooth, in accord with the principle of inertia. At 8 and 10 months, knowledge of inertia appeared to be emerging but remained weaker than knowledge of continuity. These findings are consistent with the view that common sense knowledge of physical objects develops by enrichment around constant core principles.