Citation

Berthier NE, DeBlois S, Poirier CR, Novak MA, Clifton RK. Dev. Psychol. 2000; 36(3): 394-401.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 01003, USA. berthier@psych.umass.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10830982

Abstract

Children 2, 2 1/2, and 3 years of age engaged in a search task in which they opened 1 of 4 doors in an occluder to retrieve a ball that had been rolled behind the occluder. The correct door was determined by a partially visible wall placed behind the occluder that stopped the motion of the unseen ball. Only the oldest group of children was able to reliably choose the correct door. All children were able to retrieve a toy that had been hidden in the same apparatus if the toy was hidden from the front by opening a door. Analysis of the younger children's errors indicated that they did not search randomly but instead used a variety of strategies. The results are consistent with the Piagetian view that the ability to use representations to guide action develops slowly over the first years of life.

Language: en