Baillargeon’s Explanation Of Early Infants Abilities Flashcards
Violation of expectation outline
Baillargeon criticised Piaget tasks as infants have uncoordinated motor ability to retrieve objects. Instead she used gaze studies and measure the time it took for infants to stare at an event and inferred longer staring was a surprise response
When infant sees an expected event - there is no VOE - no surprise
When an infant sees an unexpected event - there is VOE - infants will show surprise
Violation of expectation KEY STUDY
Method - 32 infants aged 3.5 months were shown a tall and short carrot that passes behind a screen with a window/gap in the middle.
Expected - tall carrot seen through the window
Unexpected - neither carrots appear in window
Results - in expected condition the time spent looking at the short and tall carrot was the same and there was no surprise. In the unexpected condition infants looked longer at the tall carrot
Conclusion - researcher inferred that infants were surprised at the impossible condition
Physical reasoning system (PRS) outline
Baillargeon proposed infants are innately born with a physical reasoning system with a basic understanding of the physical world and the ability to understand and learn information more easily (object persistence) At first they have an all or nothing concept of the world - unlike Piaget believed
Physical reasoning system - KEY STUDY
Method - 9.5 m and 12.5 m old infants were shown a cover with a protuberance. It either had an object of a difference size or no object underneath cover
Results - 9.5 m showed surprise when cover had nothing underneath but showed no surprise at cover protuberance mismatching object size
12.5 m showed surprise at both
False beliefs outline
The understanding that others may hold and act on false beliefs. Infants are born with ability to understand a sense of fairness and reasoning behind it
False beliefs KEY STUDY
Method - infant watches as a woman is shown a skunk and a doll with blue pigtails. The woman shows a preference to the doll with blue hair. The woman turns around and the skunk is placed in a box with blue hair poking out and the doll is placed in a plain box. The woman is asked to find the doll
Results - infants as young as 14.5 months showed more surprise if the woman opened the correct box with the doll inside
Conclusion - infants understood the woman should have held a false belief that the doll was in the box with the blue hair poking out
EVALUATION - how valid is Baillargeon explanation of early infants abilities
STRENGTH - more carefully controlled than Piaget - less biased sample, birth announcements in local paper, children on parents lap, parents keep eyes shut and not interact with child - controls Evs and double blind controls observer effects therefore can conclude infants eye contact increased due to VOE (causation) which criticises Piaget as children as young as 5-6m can have object permanence - however Piaget would argue showing surprise not the same as object permanence
WEAKNESS - researchers have questioned validity of VOE method used - might it be surprise at VOE but impossible event was just more interesting to watch - suggests they are just more interested in what happens rather than surprise of violation - however Baillargeon more highly supported than any critics eg believes all infants have innate ability to acquire knowledge but critics say they are born with the core knowledge but if this was the case they would develop cognitive ability to recognise VOE and principles of occlusion at the same time but they don’t so Baillargeon correct
WEAKNESS - culturally beta biased - assumes that all object persistence is the same across the world but her studies of VOE are based on infants from Canada, a western and individualistic culture - if there are cultural differences this would challenge her assumption that infants knowledge of the physical world is innate. In fact vygotsky would argue she ignores the role of language and others in development of their knowledge therefore reductionist
