Are children (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) capable of helping themselves remember on delayed object permanence tasks?

Object permanence is one of the most important advances a child can make during the first stage of their cognitive development, and the attainment of this skill typically marks the transition into the next stage. Among non-human species, great apes have also demonstrated competence on object permanence. The aim of the current thesis was to investigate the effects of 30-second delays on tradition Piagetian object permanence tasks, and whether children and chimpanzees were capable of helping themselves remember the location of a hidden target object on these tasks by pointing. A final sample of 21 children aged between 22- and 26-months were presented with visible displacement no-delay and 30-second delay trials, and invisible no-delay and 30-second delay trials. Video recording of chimpanzees performing these tasks were obtained from T. Suddendorf, who also conducted them in 2013. Children‟s and chimpanzee‟s pointing behaviours during the 30-second delay trials were recorded and compared to success rates on the corresponding tasks to determine whether they employed this pointing strategy as a means of passing. Additionally, a singular ten-box trial was included with the intention that this task would prompt children into displaying these pointing behaviours. A representational insight task was included to determine whether pointing gestures were used by children as symbols for what they knew about the location of a hidden object. These results do not support the notion that children and chimpanzees use pointing gestures to help themselves remember the location of hidden target objects, and directions for future research have been suggested