ERIC Number: EJ999322
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1525-0008
EISSN: N/A
Disappearing Decalage: Object Search in Light and Dark at 6 Months
Shinskey, Jeanne L.
Infancy, v17 n3 p272-294 May-Jun 2012
Infants search for an object hidden by an occluder in the light months later than one hidden by darkness. One explanation attributes this decalage to easier action demands in darkness versus occlusion, whereas another attributes it to easier representation demands in darkness versus occlusion. However, search tasks typically confound these two types of demands. This article presents a search task that unconfounds them to better address these two explanations of the "dark advantage." Objects were hidden by submersion in liquid instead of occlusion with a screen, allowing infants to search with equally simple actions in light versus dark. In Experiment 1, 6-month-olds unexpectedly showed a dark "dis"advantage by discriminating when an object was hidden in the light but not the dark. Experiment 2 addressed the possibility that representation demands were higher in the dark than the light and showed that infants' search in the dark increased to match that in the light, but not exceed it. Six-month-olds can thus search for a hidden object both when action demands are simplified and when a noncohesive substance rather than a cohesive occluder hides the object, supporting aspects of both action-demand and representation-demand explanations of decalage in search behavior. (Contains 3 figures.)
Descriptors: Infants, Object Permanence, Search Strategies, Light, Visual Perception, Visual Discrimination, Visual Stimuli
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A