Baillargeon's explanation of infant abilities

Question 1

Knowledge of the physical world

Answer 1

refers tot he extent to which we understand how the physical world works.
e.g. of this knowledge is object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist when they leave the visual field. There is a debate concerning the ages at which children develop this kind of knowledge.

Question 2

Early research on knowledge of the physical world

Answer 2

Piaget - sensorimotor stage - babies less that 8-9 months of age have very primitive understanding of the nature of the physical world.

Later psychologists critical of Piaget research into this area –> is possible that younger babies do not pursue hidden object simply because they do not have the motor skills.

BAILLARGEON - alternative research methods have suggested that younger babies have a better-developed understanding of the physical world than was previously thought. –> Developed violation of expectation method to investigate infant understanding of the physical world.

Question 3

Violation if expectation (VOE) research

Answer 3

the idea that if children understand how the physical world operates then they will expect certain things to happen in particular situations. If these do not occur and children react accordingly, this suggests that they have an intact knowledge of that aspect of the world

Question 4

VOE - procedure

Answer 4

• 24 infants aged 5-6 months
• a tall and short rabbit pass behind a screen with a window
• in the possible condition the tall rabbit can be seen passing the window but the short one cannot.
• in the impossible condition neither rabbit appeared at the window

Question 5

VOE - findings

Answer 5

• infants looked for an average of 33.07 seconds at the impossible events as compared to 25.11 seconds in the possible condition.
• interpreted this as meaning that the infants were surprised at the impossible condition.
• for them to be surprised it follows that they must have known that the tall rabbit should have reappeared at the window. —> object permanence

Question 6

Baillargeon’s theory of infant physical reasoning

Answer 6

• humans born with physical reasoning system
• initially have a primitive awareness of the physical properties of the world and this becomes more sophisticated as we learn from experience.