Baillargeon Flashcards
What was Renee Baillargeon inspired by?
Research suggesting that children develop object permanence earlier than Piaget believed
- Such as: Bower and Wishart who found that one-month-old babies show surprise when toys disappear
What did Baillargeon go on to show?
She went on to show that infants don’t appear to understand object permanence because they did not have the necessary motor skills to pursue a hidden object
What did Baillargeon believe babies are born with?
Innate core knowledge system
Physical reasoning system
What does the innate core knowledge system do?
They are born with object representation
→ Recognise the boundaries of objects
→ Predict and objects movement
→ Understand occlusion (object permanence)
What does the physical reasoning system do?
→ Allows them to learn and interpret new experiences so they can generate their own hypothesis
What was the Violation of Expectation Technique?
A research method that works on the basis that infants will look longer at things that are new to them
What was the procedure of the Violation of Expectation Technique?
- A child is repeatedly shown a scenario until they demonstrate (by looking away) that it is no longer a novel experience, it is possible → fits with core knowledge system
- The child is then shown an example of the scenario that is impossible → violates expectation so does not fit with core knowledge
- The time spent looking at it is compared with an example of the scenario that is possible
- Infant uses the physical reasoning system to make sense of it
→ Generate their own hypothesis
What was the procedure for the variation of the Violation of Expectation Technique?
A large or small carrot slid along a track. It was hidden at one point by a screen with a large window.
The track was arranged so that the large carrot was visible as it passed behind the window (but in fact didn’t appear).
The small carrot remains hidden.
The impossible event is the large carrot not appearing.
What did Baillargeon carry out before the variation of the Violation of Expectation Technique?
Habituation events to familiarise the infants with the process
What were the findings from the variation of the Violation of Expectation Technique?
Children as young as 3 months old demonstrated object permanence when tested this way.
The infants looked longer at the large carrot, presumably expecting the top half to be visible behind the window i.e. they had object permanence and also understood the principle of occlusion (what happens when an object is obstructed behind another).
What was the procedure of the drawbridge experiment?
Baillargeon familiarised 5-month-old infants with a drawbridge that moved 180 degrees. A coloured box was placed in the path of the drawbridge and the infants either saw:
The expected event – where the drawbridge stopped at the
appropriate point
The impossible event – where the drawbridge appeared to pass through the box and ended up lying flat, the box had disappeared.
What were the findings from the drawbridge experiment?
5-month-old infants spent longer looking at the impossible event, suggesting that they were surprised by the outcome and that they know a solid object cannot pass through another solid object
What is a strength of Baillargeon’s theory?
High internal validity
What are some weaknesses of Baillargeon’s theory?
- Rivera et al. 1999suggested that infants spend longer looking at an impossible event due to their preference for observing moving objects more than those that are stationary e.g. Baillargeon may have beenbiasedwhen she reported her findings
- Nature vs nurture
