Five-year-old Linus is playing with his baby sister, Lucy. He takes Lucy's teddy bear and hides it behind a pillow while Lucy watches. Lucy quickly finds the bear. Then Linus puts teddy in a bag, puts the bag behind a chair (where he dumps teddy), and then brings out the empty bag. Lucy looks inside the bag, but doesn't look for teddy behind the chair and is surprised when it is not there. According to Piaget, Lucy

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Lucy is committing the A not B error, which is a common mistake made by infants who are not yet able to understand that an object can exist even when it is not visible. In this case, Lucy looked for the teddy bear in the same hiding spot (A) rather than where it was last hidden (B), indicating a lack of understanding of object permanence. Choice A would be incorrect because Lucy has shown that she can find the teddy bear when it is hidden once, so she does have a rudimentary understanding of object permanence. Choice B would be incorrect because there is no indication that Lucy is playing to an imaginary audience. Choice D would be incorrect because formal operational thinking does not develop until adolescence.

Five-Year-Old Linus Is Playing with His Baby Sister, Lucy