Baillargeon

Question 1

What is nativist?

Answer 1

Viewpoint that certain skills are hard wired in the brain at birth

Question 2

What was Baillargeon’s belief about early infant abilities?

Answer 2

Argued that the reason infants don’t search for hidden objects isn’t because of object permanence
But because they’re lacking the necessary motor skills
Infants may have a better understanding of the physical world than what Piaget proposed

Question 3

What is violation of expectation? (VOE)

Answer 3

The idea that children tend to look longer at things they have never encountered before
Research involves comparing infants reactions to both unexpected and expected events and time taken looking at each event was measured

Question 4

What was the research evidence for VOE?

Answer 4

Carrot study - Baillargeon and Graber (1987)
24 infants, 5-6 months old, talk and short rabbit moving through a window
Possible event: tall rabbit could be seen whilst short one could not
Impossible event: short rabbit could be seen whilst tall one could not
Infants spent 25.11 seconds looking at possible event compared to 33.07 seconds looking at impossible event (on average)
Children as young as 3 months old understand object permanence and occlusion

Question 5

What did Baillargeon theorise about infants knowledge of the physical world?

Answer 5

Proposed that infants are born with a physical reasoning system (PRS) that allows a basic understanding of the physical world and the ability to learn additional details easily
Allows awareness of physical properties of the world to become more sophisticated as infants learn from experience
Children have a basic understanding of object persistence from birth and quickly begin to identify event categories that correspond to the ways in which objects interact

Question 6

What is the ‘all or none’ concept?

Answer 6

Infants form this concept about physical phenomena and then incorporate variables that affect it
Covering principle = if cloth has a bump then there is an object underneath
9.5 months show surprise when cover with bulge is removed to reveal nothing whereas 12.5 months only show surprise if object is smaller than bulge suggested

Question 7

AO3: VOE method may lack validity ❌

Answer 7

P: one weakness of Baillargeon’s study is that the VOE methods itself may lack validity
E: For example, Smith (1999) suggests that infants may look longer at impossible events because they are ‘interesting’ rather than it violating their expectations
E: Schlesinger and Casey (2003) showed that when an impossible event occurs, infants show greater perceptual interest rather than surprise
L: This suggests that the VOE method might not skews her what Baillargeon says it measures

Question 8

AO3: research is carefully controlled ✅

Answer 8

P: one strength is that Baillargeon’s research is very carefully controlled
E: for example, in each trial there were 2 observers noting the amount of interest shown and they didn’t know whether the event the infant was watching was possible or impossible (double-blind control)
E: this eliminates confounding variables
L: therefore, this method has stronger internal validity that some measures of infants abilities

Question 9

AO3: lacks cultural validity ❌

Answer 9

P: Baillargeon’s research also lacks cultural validity
E: she hasn’t specifically studied the capabilities of very young children raised in cultures other than America
E: Therefore, if there were difference in abilities related to culture, this would challenge her views regarding the PRS
L: this suggests that further research is needed before we can accept her claims that infant abilities are innately driven