Researchers have been interested in object permanence since Piaget first introduced the concept in 1921. According to Piaget, very young children did not understand that objects could still exist when not visible; they thought every object that had disappeared was out of existence. Older children knew that hidden objects were merely out of sight and they did so because they could maintain mental representations of the objects.
Recently, Eugene Subbotsky of Lancaster University has come up with an interesting and innovative series of experiments exploring how the concept of object permanence relates to our understanding of "magic." To study this, he devised a series of tests with 6 year olds, 9 year olds and adults. In one of the experiments, he asked the subjects to place a blank piece of paper in a box. When opened, a picture of a fish appeared on the paper. The 6-year-olds believed it was magic, the 9-year-olds tended to believe it was a trick, as did the adults. After the examiner gestured as if he was casting a spell over the box, the 6 year olds believed it was magic and so did the 9 year olds but not the adults.
After this, Subbotsky asked participants to conduct the same experiment in their imaginations. Instead of putting a real piece of paper in a real box, he asked them to imagine doing it, and imagine the drawing of the fish appearing. The results were the same as in the "real" experiment. It was curious that the older children didn't feel that there was a magical transformation and they responded the same as when there was a real object.
In subsequent experiments, he also repeated the trick with the magic box, but using imagined objects only. In the imaginary condition, where participants conducted the trick in their imaginations on fantastic creatures, the results were even more surprising. The children were more likely to believe that the transformation was just a trick, and adults seemed to suspend disbelief and consider the transformation to be an example of true magic. This was also true of another experiment where a witch could cast a good spell versus a bad spell.
Subbotsky theorized that adults seem to have different rules for the fictional world of imagination and the real world, while children see the fictional world operating under similar rules to the real world. He feels that he has found the boundary where adults begin to give some credence to magical powers. When the "magic" has some potential to do them harm, a firm disbelief in magic can be turned on its head. Apparently nearly all of us believe in magic at least some of the time.
Subbotsky E. The Permanence of Mental Objects: Testing Magical Thinking on Perceived and Imaginary Realities. Developmental Psychology. 2005 Mar Vol 41(2) 301-318
Piaget
Eugene Subbotsky
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