A-Not-B Error

The A-Not-B Error is a phenomenon observed in cognitive development studies involving infants. It refers to the tendency of infants to mistakenly reach for a hidden object at a previously successful location (A) rather than at its new location (B) after they have seen the object being moved.

Causes

The A-Not-B Error is believed to arise due to the limitations in the infant’s working memory and their inability to inhibit a previously successful motor response. It suggests that infants in the early stages of cognitive development have difficulty updating their mental representation of object permanence, leading to this error.

Experiment

The A-Not-B Error is typically studied using a simple experiment. In this experiment, an object is repeatedly hidden at location A, observed by the infant. After several trials, the object is then hidden at a new location B while the infant watches. Surprisingly, infants under a certain age continue to search for the object at location A, demonstrating the A-Not-B Error.

Significance

The A-Not-B Error has been considered an important milestone in understanding the cognitive development and information processing abilities of infants. It suggests that even though infants may possess some level of knowledge about object permanence, they encounter challenges when it comes to updating and retrieving this knowledge in a changing environment.