A-not-B search error

According to Jean Piaget, children make the A-not-B search error at the stage of sensorimotor intelligence at the age of 8 to 12 months when they are actively looking for a hidden object.

If an object is hidden from the eyes of a child in a place A and the child is allowed to search for it, it will find it again in this place. This indicates an acquired object permanence , according to which children already have an understanding that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight. If you repeat the process of hiding and letting it be found at location A and then hiding the object at location B, the child will still suspect the object at location A and search for it there, even though it saw that the object was last hidden at location B. has been. Jean Piaget concluded that children do not yet have a clear idea of the persistent existence of hidden objects.

There are several explanations for the A-not-B search error: Children may have difficulties keeping an eye on an object that is being brought from A to B. It may also be because children do not want to avoid a previous rewarding reaction (finding their way back to location A). Another more comprehensive explanation could be that a dynamic, complex system of factors in having acquired a habit causes the child to recognize hiding place A and make hiding place B look similar.

Yet another explanation suggests that the A-not-B error is directly related to the retention period (as a memory aspect), which always increases with age. Diamond, 1985, was able to demonstrate the relevance of the delay in searching for search behavior: as soon as a toy was hidden under one of two identical cloths, children 7–8 months old only showed search behavior if it occurred immediately after the task was given. 10-month-old children, on the other hand, showed a holding time of 10 seconds in which the search behavior found the right toy, while 16-18 month old children could already hold a holding time of 20 to 30 seconds.

The search error in dogs

Even dogs looking for hidden food in the place where it was hidden at first. They do this even if they have observed that the food has been hidden elsewhere. Hand-raised wolves and monkeys don't make this mistake. It is attributed to the special human communication skills that dogs share with humans, and which may be a result of domestication .

Individual evidence

^ A. Diamond: Development of the ability to use recall to guide action, as indicated by infants' performance on AB. In: Child development. Volume 56, Number 4, August 1985, pp. 868-883, ISSN 0009-3920 . PMID 4042750 .
^ J. Topal, G. Gergely, A. Erdohegyi, G. Csibra, A. Miklosi : Differential Sensitivity to Human Communication in Dogs, Wolves, and Human Infants. In: Science. 325, 2009, pp. 1269-1272, doi : 10.1126 / science.1176960 .
^ M. Tomasello, J. Kaminski: Like Infant, Like Dog. In: Science. 325, 2009, pp. 1213-1214, doi : 10.1126 / science.1179670 .

literature

Laura E. Berk: Developmental Psychology , Munich 2005, p. 201, ISBN 978-3-8273-7110-2

[PMID4042750-1] A. Diamond: Development of the ability to use recall to guide action, as indicated by infants' performance on AB. In: Child development. Volume 56, Number 4, August 1985, pp. 868-883, ISSN 0009-3920 . PMID 4042750 .

[DOI10.1126/science.1176960-2] J. Topal, G. Gergely, A. Erdohegyi, G. Csibra, A. Miklosi : Differential Sensitivity to Human Communication in Dogs, Wolves, and Human Infants. In: Science. 325, 2009, pp. 1269-1272, doi : 10.1126 / science.1176960 .

[DOI10.1126/science.1179670-3] M. Tomasello, J. Kaminski: Like Infant, Like Dog. In: Science. 325, 2009, pp. 1213-1214, doi : 10.1126 / science.1179670 .