Early representational insight: twenty-four-month-olds can use a photo to find an object in the world.

The research reported here shows that under certain circumstances even 24-month-old children can display representational insight. Seventy-nine children participated in 3 studies in which a photo or video presentation could be used to guide their search for a hidden object. Studies 1 and 2 replicated earlier findings of chance performance levels across 4 trials. However, on their first trial, 24-month-olds performed above chance in 3 of 4 conditions in these experiments. Study 3 therefore presented children not with the typical 4 trials in 1 room, but with 1 trial each in 4 different rooms. This manipulation ruled out perseveration errors and resulted in above-chance performance in average mean retrieval rates. These results call for first-trial reanalyses of earlier studies.