Baillargeon

Question 1

When did Baillargeon suggest object permanence began?

Answer 1

3 months onwards

Question 2

What was her issue with Piaget’s research?

Answer 2

Argued his research was invalid, suggested reasons that babies fail OP test is because they don’t have the necessary motor skills, not because they don’t have OP

Question 3

How did Baillargeon overcome the issue of a lack of motor skills?

Answer 3

Violation of expectation research- tests for object permanence and assumes infants will express surprise at impossible event
Infants reaction are observed and amount of time spent looking at something is taken as a measure of cognitive ability

Question 4

How is VOE research carried out?

Answer 4

Child repeatedly shown scenario until they demonstrate habituation by looking away
Child then shown impossible event, and time spent looking then compared with possible event

Question 5

What was Baillargeon and Galber’s 1987 carrot experiment?

Answer 5

Child should be able to see tall rabbit when it passes through window, and are surprised when they don’t
Children as young as 3 months demonstrated object permanence
Average of about 33 seconds looking at impossible event, whereas around 25 seconds at possible event

Question 6

What are the variations?

Answer 6

Containment- object enters container, not seen when container is opened
Support- object should fall when unsupported but not when it’s on horizontal surface
In all cases, infants have shown that they pay more attention to impossible events

Question 7

What is the physical reasoning system (PRS)?

Answer 7

Infants born with innate object knowledge and basic understanding of the physical world
It has been tested and proven that children are born with a primitive understanding of objects
It is a direct challenge to Piaget’s constructivist views

Question 8

Why do impossible events capture the attention of infants?

Answer 8

The nature of their PRS predisposes them to attend a new event to develop their understanding of the world

Question 9

High validity?

Answer 9

VOE eliminates confounding variable of lack of motor skills
Less biased sample- used birth announcements in local paper
Two observers using double blind trials- high inter rater reliability and validity

Question 10

Low validity?

Answer 10

Can only assume more time looking means violation of expectations
May be other reasons why one scene is found more interesting than others
Schoner and Thelen (2004) argue that VOE studies show that infants notice a difference, not that they are surprised
Bremner (2013)- infants my be surprised but doesn’t mean that they understand it