ABSTRACT
Errors were in the same overscaled direction, indicating the same difficulties in mastering the physical relations among the objects. The reward was systematically contacted since the beginning, and the physical variables were quickly adjusted to the right proportions. Once the human infant realizes that the stick must necessarily strike the target object to displace it, it immediately proceeds to adjust appropriately the physical variables governing the resulting trajectory of the target. The use of a stick to rake in out-of-reach objects is a task that probes further this understanding, as well as that of the elementary physical relations governing interactions among objects. Causality has the form called by Piaget “efficacy” or “magico-phenomenalistic”: causal links are established directly between the subject’s gestures and the desired effects, without necessarily requiring physical contact between the cause and the effect.
