Terry is a research assistant in Professor Samuel's laboratory. He is running a study in which 10-month-old crawling infants are shown a fascinating colorful music box and a plain block being placed on separate tables. They are then allowed to crawl to one of the two tables to indicate their toy choice. Terry notices that infants randomly choose between the two tables. What could be the reason for the infants' failure to choose the more fascinating toy?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Infants at this age do not have object permanence, meaning that they are not able to mentally represent objects that are no longer visible. Therefore, they may not remember that the fascinating toy was on one of the tables, and thus choose randomly.

Terry Is a Research Assistant in Professor Samuel's Laboratory