Baillargeon's explanation of infant abilities

Question 1

violation of expectation VOE

Answer 1

if child has an intact understanding of part of the physical world, they will have expectations of how objects behave and when these expectations are violated, they will pay more attention to the scene because of the PRS

Question 2

physical reasoning system

Answer 2

the innate predisposition to pay attention to ‘surprising’ events which are not in line with our expectations, in an effort to improve and advance our understanding of the physical world, and event categories

Question 3

event categories

Answer 3

each represent a way in which two or more objects interact

Question 4

object permanence research sample

Answer 4

24 infants, 5-6 months old

Question 5

object permanence research possible condition

Answer 5

a short rabbit can’t be seen passing behind a window because it is too short but a tall rabbit can be seen

Question 6

object permanence research impossible condition

Answer 6

neither rabbit can be seen, therefore, it is impossible because it is inconsistent with the concept of object permanence

Question 7

object permanence research results

Answer 7

infants looked at the impossible condition for an average of 7.96 seconds longer than the other

Question 8

object permanence research conclusion

Answer 8

the infants believed that the rabbit continued to exist and pursued its trajectory behind the screen

the infants represented the height of the rabbit behind the screen and therefore expected the tall rabbit to appear in the window and were surprised that it failed to do so

infants acquire object permanence at 5 months (unlike Piaget’s theory that it is acquired at 8 months)

Question 9

containment

Answer 9

the cognitive ability to recognise that if an object is put in a container and the lid is sealed, when the lid is removed, the object will still be there