Abstract
The phenomenon of response perseveration has captivated psychologists for years, with the majority of theories of this effect focusing primarily on the cognitive, spatially oriented nature of this behavior. The current project examined whether response perseveration would also occur within a task requiring little cognitive spatial resources--barrier crossing. Across three experiments, significant response perseveration was observed in toddlers' choices of which side of a barrier to cross. Specifically, Experiment 1 demonstrated the basic effect of response perseveration in barrier crossing, Experiment 2 showed that perseveration would continue even when the chosen side was more difficult to cross than the nonchosen side, and Experiment 3 demonstrated that perseverations were based on an environment-centered reference frame, as opposed to a body-centered reference frame. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theoretical accounts of response perseveration specifically, and with regard to perceptual-motor relations more generally.
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