1. Behavioral phenomenon deconstruction
Starting around 11-12 months old, babies exhibit a frenzied obsession with various "switches": They can stand in front of a wet tissue box, a trash can, a cabinet door, or a light switch, repeatedly "opening, closing, and opening again" without getting tired, for up to several minutes. Many mothers, in their state of breakdown, tend to worry that the child may have an obsessive-compulsive disorder tendency, or think that they are simply wasting energy and making noise.
2. Core variables behind the behavior:
The causal verification of visual occlusion and the "state transition" cognition, from the perspective of developmental psychology, beneath this mechanical repetition is the "scientific experiment" that babies conduct in their brains to construct the causal laws of micro-space: The boundary control of "existence" and "disappearance": When a baby closes the lid of the tissue box, the visible tissue instantly disappears visually; when they reopen the lid, the tissue reappears. This physical feedback helps them repeatedly solidify the high-level cognitive of "object permanence" (the persistence of objects). They need to repeatedly operate with their hands to confirm: The obscured object has not vanished; it is merely in a "hidden state". The "state transition" from two-dimensional space to three-dimensional space: The opening and closing of doors and lids are essentially changes in the geometric shape of space. Babies operate the switches to observe how rigid lines undergo angular displacement through an axis and perceive the critical point between "closed space" and "open space". Each immediate physical deformation or sound feedback brought by the switch activates dopamine in the brain, strengthening their sense of efficacy in the environment.
3. Deep cognitive reconstruction of the mother's perspective:
The children are not causing trouble out of compulsion; they are using their hands to explore the micro-space topology. If we forcibly remove them or stop them at this point, it will disrupt the logical loop they are in an excited state of. The smart response strategy is to "use the force to our advantage". At home, create a safe exploration area for them, such as using old cardboard boxes, various covered bottles, and push-button bubble pads to make a "Busy Board" (a board that encourages them to explore the transformation of spatial states).
