A-not-B error

The A- not -B search error make children after Jean Piaget at the stage of sensorimotor intelligence in the ages of 8 and 12 months when they are actively looking for a hidden object.

If, before the eyes of a child an object hidden in a place A and allowed to search for the child then, so it will again find him in this place. This points to an acquired object permanence, which children already have an understanding that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight. If one repeats the process of hiding and finding omission at location A and then hides the object at site B, the child is still suspect the object at location A and search after, although it has been seen that the subject of last hidden at location B been. Jean Piaget concluded that children do not have a distinct idea of ​​the continued existence of hidden objects.

For the A- not -B search error, there are several possible explanations: children might have difficulties with, an object that is moved from A to B to keep a close eye on. Maybe it is but also that children have a previous rewarding response ( the recovery at location A ) does not want to avoid. A more comprehensive explanation could be that a dynamic, complex system of factors, acquired a habit to have the child made ​​to detect the hiding place A and B can see the hiding place similar.

Yet another variant declaration stating that the A- not -B error is directly related to the retention period ( as a memory aspect ), which always increases with age. Diamond, 1985, for example, could prove the relevance of the delay of searching for the search behavior here: Once a toy was hidden under one of two identical towels, showed 7-8 months old children, only one search behavior when it took place immediately after the task. 10 months old children, however, showed this regard Keep a period of 10 seconds at which the right toy was found by the search behavior, while 16-18 months old children could already have a retention time of 20-30 seconds.

The search failure in dogs

Dogs also search hidden food at the place where it was first hidden. They do this even if they have observed that the food was hidden in a different place. Hand -reared wolves and monkeys do not make this mistake. It is attributed to the special ability to communicate with people who share the dogs with people, and that may be a result of domestication.