Object Permanence

Object permanence is the development of awareness that objects are separate entities that continue to exist even when one has no perceptual contact with them. Furthermore, it is the ability to retain and utilize visual images or form primitive mental images. Educational psychologists are interested in object permanence because it is seen as a developmental milestone and a significant cognitive shift. The theorist Jean Piaget introduced the concept of object permanence and its development in infants. Since his introduction of the concept around 1952, others have conducted tests to prove or disprove the notion.

Piaget proposed that infants achieve object permanence in stages during the sensorimotor period of development. This period of development has been divided into six substages. In substages 1 and 2, the first ...