Baillargeon's Explanation of Infant Abilities Evaluation

Question 1

Support

Answer 1

• findings are consistent with research on other ability
• Pei et al found that infants can use crude patterns to judge distance from early age
• But that more subtle texture differences require more experience
• Distance perception therefore appears to be another innate system that becomes more sophisticated with age like PRS
• Therefore it is likely many cognitive systems develop partially in tandem and the fact that other abilities develop in the same way as VOE is supportive to the PRS theory

Question 2

Contradiction

Answer 2

• Hard to judge what an infant understands
• Using VOE technique we are predicting how a baby might behave if a VOE has occurred
• Might not actually look longer at impossible events than possible events
• Infants might look for different lengths of time at different events
• Just because they see them as different not necessarily because they have recognised them as possible
• Raises questions about validity

Question 3

Alternative

Answer 3

• VOE assumes behavioural responses indicate understanding
• Piaget - distinguished understanding and acting in accordance with a principle
• Looking longer is not the same as reasoning about the physical world
• This suggests that Piaget and Baillargeon are considering 2 different processes
• Baillargeon’s research is not actually a criticism of Piaget’s conclusions

Question 4

Practical Application

Answer 4

• VOE provides a better understanding of infants
• Piaget assumed that when an infant failed to search for a hidden object - the infant thought it no longer existed
• Or maybe they were simply losing interest - because of the VOE technique enables you to control this possibility
• Means that baillargeon’s explanation provides a more valid account of infant abilities that Piagetian theories

Question 5

Issues and Debates

Answer 5

• Her approach is based on the notion of innate mechanisms driving development
• But she hasn’t specifically researched the capabilities of young children who has had different experiences
• If there was research that took into account different experiences, it would challenge her approach
• It would mean that experience has greater role on development than she claimed
• Her inventive methods for studying what infants can or can’t do has enabled researchers to gain many interesting insights