Piaget's sensorimotor stage includes which outcome?

• A. Object permanence
• B. Symbolic thought
• C. Deferred imitation
• D. Egocentrism

Answer: (A)

Infants in the sensorimotor stage develop object permanence: the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they aren’t visible. This marks a shift from relying solely on immediate sensory and motor experiences to holding mental representations of the world. You can see it emerging as babies start to search for hidden toys around 8–12 months, with full reliability by about 18–24 months. This foundation of knowing that things exist even when out of sight sets the stage for later, more advanced thinking, including symbolic thought that appears in the next stage. Egocentrism and symbolic thought are more closely tied to later stages of development, and deferred imitation also appears as children begin to imitate actions after a delay, building on these early representations.