Object permanence: characteristics of this skill, and when it appears.

Object permanence is a psychological skill that is absent in newborns.

Many parents will have noticed that, when they are very young, their children do not cry when they are left alone in their room. This makes them think that their children are not afraid of being left alone and, therefore, do not make much of a fuss.

However, this belief comes to naught when the baby, who is now a few months old, really misses them: he cries, screams, throws tantrums... What has happened? Why was it not a problem to be left alone before and now it is?

The answer to this can be found in the idea of object permanence, a capacity that develops over time.This is a capacity that develops as the child goes beyond the first two years of life.

What is object permanence?

During the first months of life, when any object is out of the baby's sight, this object ceases to exist in his mind.. It is as if it vanishes. If he doesn't see it, it doesn't exist and that's it. However, from the age of 4 months onwards, the baby gradually understands that not seeing an object does not mean that it has disappeared, but that it may be hidden. We call this object permanence, and it is an ability described especially by the famous Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and the main achievement of the sensorimotor stage.

Having the ability to mentally represent an object is a fundamental aspect so that, when we stop seeing it, we understand that it continues to exist. Newborn children do not have the capacity to internally represent objects, people or other elements, so if they stop seeing them, they automatically behave as if they had vanished. For example, when his parents leave the room, take away his bottle, or he simply does not see a toy, the baby believes that it no longer exists.

However, as he gets older, he becomes more and more aware that it does not exist, as he grows older, he becomes more and more aware that not seeing something does not mean that it no longer exists.. Although very tentatively, the notion of object permanence develops with age. First, the baby understands that if he sees parts of a half-hidden object, it means that the object in question is there. Later, when a toy is hidden from him, as long as he has seen how it was hidden, he will go in search of it. By the age of two, he is able to search for objects on his own.

How does this ability develop?

In his theory of cognitive development Piaget speaks of up to six substages in which the notion of object permanence develops.

1. Sub-stage of reflex activity

This sub-stage goes from birth to the first month. The baby learns how its body can move, although it still has very blurred vision and its attention spans are rather short.. It is limited to exercising innate reflexes.

The three main achievements of this substage are finger sucking, following something moving with the eyes and closing the hands.

2. Sub-stage of primary circular reactions

Corresponds to month 1 to 4 of life. The baby sees objects and begins to focus more on them.. When an object is hidden, the baby may try to look for it for a while, but will not make much of an effort and, after a short time, will pretend it no longer exists. There is no object permanence whatsoever.

However, the infant does show certain anticipatory responses to familiar sights and sounds, such as opening his mouth at the sight of a spoon or sucking on the air at the sight of a bottle. His actions are less reflexive than in the previous substage, and he is already behaving more intentionally. He discovers how to use his body.

3. Secondary circular reactions sub-stage

This stage is from 4 to 8 months. Babies reach for objects that are partially hidden, especially in the seventh month.. It is not object permanence at all, since if the object is completely hidden the baby will not look for it.

4. Sub-stage of coordination of secondary circular reactions

This stage goes from 8 to 12 months and we can already speak of object permanence.. The child is able to retrieve an object that is completely hidden in the same room, as long as he/she has seen how it was hidden.

5. Tertiary circular reactions

This stage goes from 12 to 18 months. The child is able to retrieve a hidden object several times within its point of view, but cannot locate it when it is outside its perceptual field.. That is, if a toy is hidden without him seeing it and in a place that does not sound like it could be, the child will not find it. This is because the infant does not yet have the inner representational capacity to represent the object and imagine various places where it could be.

6. Symbolic problem solving

The child already fully understands the idea of object permanence. He/she is able to understand that objects can be hidden in new places, i.e., he/she is able to make an idea of the object's permanence.The child can make a mental representation that a teddy bear is, for example, inside a container, even though he has never seen it there before. Can mentally represent images of the object and think of different scenarios where it could be. You don't need to have seen it being hidden to go in search of it.

What is the relationship between object permanence and separation anxiety?

There is a strong relationship between object permanence and separation anxiety. Surely many parents will have experienced this first hand, especially if they have enrolled their children in day care very early in life..

For the first few months, when they are barely a year old, they behave very well when their parents leave once they have been dropped off. However, as they get older, there comes a time when they start to cry when they are left alone, whether at daycare or elsewhere.

This separation anxiety is explained by the notion of object permanence. The child begins to understand that his parents have not disappeared, but that they have gone away, and he does not know when they will return.. Being left alone by the main attachment figures is something that babies can experience with great distress and may even interpret as abandonment, which is why they start crying.

How do you find out if the baby has acquired this skill?

Although Piaget's findings have been fundamental for developmental psychology, there are many who question them. An example of this is T. G. R. Bower, who, with his experiments with his experiments came to find cases of total acquisition of object permanence in children as young as 3 months of age, which is very premature.This is very premature considering that Piaget was talking about, at least, 16 months.

Whether this is true or not, there should be no doubt that each child is different and that the speed with which he or she will acquire object permanence varies from person to person. The sub-stages proposed by Piaget should not be seen as the fixed and immovable normal, since there may be children who take a little longer and others who take a little less time. It has even been debated whether object permanence depends on cultural factors and early stimulation.

There are many games that parents can use to check to what extent their child has or has not developed early signs of object permanence and see if he is advanced or a little behind his chronological age. Below we are going to talk about two very simple and easy to do at home.

1. The Cuckoo-tras

The peek-a-boo is the typical game that every father, mother, sibling and grandparent has played with a newborn. It simply consists of the adult covering his face with his hands saying "Where is Menganito?" and then uncovering his face and saying "Here he is". This very typical game may seem like a very basic thing, but if another person observes how the child reacts when the person in front of him covers his face, he will understand to what extent he does or does not have a slight notion of object permanence.

If he has not yet developed this ability at all, the moment his parent covers his face, he will be truly impressed.. It is as if he asks himself "Has daddy disappeared? He is no longer in front of me". At about 8 months, this trick will no longer be useful to amuse the baby, since he understands that behind the hands there is a face, especially if he can still see the ears or hair.

2. Hiding toys and playing hide-and-seek

If we want to replicate Piaget's experiment, the best way is to use toys and hide them. Depending on how we hide them, we will be able to discover in which sub-stage the child is in.. We can also play hide-and-seek and see how the baby reacts.

Maybe by partially hiding it, the baby understands that the toy is there, but when we hide it completely, even if he has seen how we did it, he does not go in search of it. It can also be done by playing hide-and-seek, making the attachment figure hide partially or totally and the child has seen how it was done. In this case, it would be in the substage of secondary circular reactions.

Bibliographical references:

• Bower, T.G.R. (1974). Development in infancy. San Francisco: Freeman.
• Baillargeon, R., Spelke, E.S. & Wasserman, S. (1985). Object Permanence in Five-Month-Old Infants. Cognition, 20, 191-208.
• Bower, T. G. R., & Wishart, J. G. (1972). The effects of motor skill on object permanence. Cognition, 1, 165-172.