The emergence of representation in search: Understanding the hider as an independent agent

The development of representational skills

“…For example, Fischer and Jennings (1981) and Bertenthal and Fischer (1983) argue that beginning at around 24 months, children attempt to shape their own search to match hiding strategies they detect in the experimenter. In other words, children mentally represent or map out the simple hiding strategies of the examiner, although they cannot yet represent the entire path of an invisibly displaced object.…”

Logical searches of young children in hiding and finding tasks

“…Several investigators have suggested that the performance of young subjects in search tasks may reflect, in part, their understanding of the roles of hider and finder (e.g. Fischer & Jennings, 1981;Bertenthal & Fischer, 1983). There are, for example, dramatic changes between 3 and 6 years in children's understanding of how to conceal (as a hider) or guess (as a finder) which of two closed hands contains a penny (de Vries, 1970).…”

The Development of Representation in Search: A Social-Cognitive Analysis

“…Agency: Representation of an Agent Moving an Object Fischer and Jennings (1981) propose an alternative analysis of representation in search that explains Corrigan's results and provides additional predictions .about the development of representation in search. In contrast to previous analyses, this proposal emphasizes the social context of object permanence tasks.…”

“…Furthermore, the child's search is most likely affected by both the characteristics of the object (e.g., large vs. small) and the characteristics of the screens (e.g., placement in a row vs. placement haphazardly all over the table) (Jennings, 1980). Our position is that the search task does not require children to separate agent and object but tests their ability to represent how the agent hides the object (Fischer & Jennings, 1981).…”

“…It is our contention that Piaget's analysis needs to be revised and differentiated: not only are early representations simpler than Piaget postulated, but they also are more centrally social than he acknowledged. One of the most pervasive changes that representations produce is the understanding that other people are independent agents, actors who do things independently of the child's own actions and perceptions (Fischer & Jennings, 1981;Watson & Fischer, 1977).…”