Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?
成年人知道人和物体是固体。在电影中，我们知道如果我们伸手去触摸汤姆·克鲁斯，我们所能感受到的就是空气。但是婴儿有这种理解吗？
To see whether babies know objects are solid, T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could reach out and touch, and then to show them the illusion. If they knew that objects are solid and they reached out for the illusion and found empty air, they could be expected to show surprise in their faces and movements. All the 16- to 24-week-old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.
为了观察婴儿是否知道物体是固体，T·鲍尔设计了一种方法，将一个悬挂的球进行视觉影像投射。他的计划是首先给婴儿一个真实的球，可以伸手触摸，然后给他们展示视觉影像。如果他们知道物体是固体的，他们伸出手去触碰影像，发现只是空气，他们的脸和动作可能会表现出惊讶。所有接受测试的16到24周大的婴儿都感到惊讶，当他们伸手去触碰影像时，发现球不在那里。
Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?
成年人也有物体永恒的感觉。我们知道，如果我们在房间里放一个盒子，然后锁上门，当我们回来时，盒子仍然会在那里。但婴儿是否意识到，一个在椅子下滚动的球不会消失，去往世外桃源呢？
Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to reappear. If the experimenter took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The researcher substituted a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week -old babies did not seem to notice the switch. Thus, the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of "something permanence," while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.
鲍尔所做的实验表明，婴儿在18周大时会产生物体持久性的感觉。在他的实验中，鲍尔使用了一个在屏幕后面的玩具火车。当16周大和22周大的婴儿看到玩具火车消失在屏幕左侧后，他们向右看，期待它再次出现。如果实验者把火车从桌子上拿下来，举起屏幕，所有的婴儿似乎都很惊讶看不到火车。这似乎表明所有的婴儿都有一种物体永久性的感觉。但实验的第二部分表明事实并非如此。当火车飞到屏幕后面时，研究人员用球替换了火车。22周大的婴儿似乎很惊讶，回头看了看左边的火车。但16周大的婴儿似乎没有注意到这种更换。因此，16周大的婴儿似乎有一种“某物永久性”的感觉，而22周大的婴儿则有一种与特定物体相关的物体永久性的感觉。
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