History Main / NoObjectPermanence

* This is why infants in all cultures find the game of "Peekaboo" so amusing, as their minds have not fully developed object permanence yet. For all they know, you may have really disappeared when you cover your face, and thus they are delighted to see you return from wherever you presumably went to.

* ''WebAnimation/TheAmazingDigitalCircus'': Kinger seems to have an issue with this. On several occasions, he'll be standing directly next to someone (usually Gangle), only to be shocked by their presence the next time he looks in their direction.

** The Not-Things are trying to figure out physics on the fly while impersonating both the Doctor and Donna. In one scene, Donna clocks that the Not-Doctor isn't real when she looks down and sees that the tie he'd dropped earlier has disappeared.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Silence are a race of aliens with the power to make people forget their existence the moment they aren't being observed.

* The "Forgettable God" in Neil Gaiman's ''Literature/AmericanGods'' invokes this in whoever interacts with him. Any information about him is instantly forgotten, although the advice he gives that is not related to him is remembered as some hunch out of nowhere.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':

--->“How can I tell," said the man, "that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?”
* In the ''Isaac Asimov's Robot City'' series, two specialised security robots ordered to guard a valuable object have trouble with this concept -- so, rather than lock the object in a safe, they keep it on a table so they can watch it all the time. This doesn't turn out to be a very good strategy.
* Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Mute'': The hero's mutant power is that once he leaves the view of another person, that person completely forgets him.

* In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders'', a poorly-executed magic spell causes Mike to sort of revert to being a baby.[[note]]He has the mental processes of a baby, [[RuleOfFunny but keeps the body and speech abilities of an adult]].[[/note]]
-->'''Baby Mike:''' Well, Servo's gone. And he's ''not'' right in front of my face, so that means he's never coming back. [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry That upsets me.]] Waah.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Unforgettable": An alien race called the Ramuran gives off pheromones that interfere with long-term memories. Once a Ramuran leaves another creature's presence, after a few hours the other creature will have completely forgotten about ever meeting the Ramuran.

* In quite a few zombie films this is a recurring trope; due to the fact zombies are usually shown to have some form of brain damage (hence their feral state)

* ''Website/TheOnion'' report: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssjokgx0pUQ 10% of U.S. high school students graduate without basic object permanence skills]].

* Another Good/Bad Bug invoking; the first Brute necromorph of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' will forget that Issac is around when he goes down the stairs on the ''Ishimura''s bridge.

In psychology, object permanence is the ability to recognize that an object continues to exist even when you cannot see, hear, or touch it. In RealLife, everyone eventually develops this trait, usually between 8 and 12 months of age.

* The old myth that ostriches bury their heads in the sand is based on this; the idea is that an ostrich is so stupid that it assumes any threat it can't see isn't real. In truth, ostriches stick their heads in the sand to manage their nests.

* The [[FanNickname Forgettable God]] in Neil Gaiman's ''Literature/AmericanGods'' invokes this in whoever interacts with him. Any information about him is instantly forgotten, although the advice he gives that is not related to him is remembered as some hunch out of nowhere.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism Solipsism]] is the epistemological view that only one's own mind is sure to exist; therefore anything outside your own mind might be an illusion. This creates a wide array of philosophical and metaphysical difficulties.