Abstract
Children who are over three years old can generally find dropped and hidden objects easily. However, there is little research on how exactly preschoolers are able to find them. This study therefore focused on whether children could find a dropped and hidden object, not only by applying the concept of solidity (knowledge that objects move only on unobstructed paths), but also by understanding the representational properties of a board acting as a barrier to stop the moving object. This study utilized a "hole task" in which the board had a hole through which an object went while falling, although it looked like a full board. On the hole task, three-year-olds had significant difficulty finding the object, compared to four- and five-year-olds. This suggests that when searching for an object, three-year-olds take into consideration solely the concept of solidity, while four- and fiveyear-olds include representations of the physical properties of the board in their search. That is, representational ability when searching for objects develops between the age of three and four.
