Final answer:
Habituation studies are often cited to challenge Piaget's assertion that object permanence develops over time, suggesting infants have some innate sense of object persistence.
Step-by-step explanation:
Critics of Piaget's notion that object permanence requires time to develop often point to habituation studies as a key technique supporting the idea that infants might possess an innate sense of what researchers term "persistence." In these studies, infants demonstrate awareness of the existence of objects even when those objects are not within their immediate line of sight.
The findings from habituation studies imply that infants may inherently understand that objects endure or persist, challenging Piaget's stage-based theory of cognitive development, which posited a gradual acquisition of object permanence. By revealing early cognitive abilities related to object persistence, habituation studies contribute to the discourse on the innate aspects of cognitive development in infants, suggesting a more nuanced and potentially earlier understanding of object permanence than proposed by Piaget.