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Infant perseveration and implications for object permanence theories: A PDP model of the AB task
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1998
Year
Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceInfants SearchObject Permanence TheoriesActive MemoryCognitionInfant PerceptionAttentionHuman MemoryExplicit MemoryIntersensory PerceptionPsychologySocial SciencesDevelopmental PsychologyObject PermanenceVisual CognitionCognitive DevelopmentMemoryAdaptive MemoryDevelopmental DisorderCognitive NeurosciencePsychophysicsInfant PerseverationHuman LearningChild PsychologyBehavioral SciencesCognitive ScienceEmbodied CognitionChunking (Psychology)Human CognitionInfant CognitionExperimental PsychologySocial CognitionChild DevelopmentImplicit MemoryCognitive DynamicsAssociative Memory (Psychology)MedicinePdp ModelCognitive Psychology
From the earliest ages at which infants search for hidden objects, they make the A B error, searching perseveratively at previous rather than current hiding locations (Piaget, 1954). This paper presents a parallel distributed processing (PDP) model that instantiates an explicit set of processing mechanisms to account for a large and diverse set of data on infants’ A B errors. The model demonstrates how basic processes–the formation of latent memory traces and their interaction with developing active memory traces–can provide a unifying framework for understanding why and when infants perseverate. Novel predictions from the model are discussed, together with its challenges for theories that posit a concept of object permanence in the first year of life.