✓ Baillargeon's Explanation of Infant Abilities Flashcards
What did Baillargeon say that contradicts Piaget?
suggested that younger babies have a better “understanding of the physical world” than P thought
What method did she develop & what did it investigate?
developed the “violation of expectation” method to investigate object permanence
What did B suggest humans are born with?
a “physical reasoning system” (PRS)
What is a PRS?
physical reasoning system - we are hard-wired with a basic understanding of the physical world (innate)
What was the Procedure of the VOE study?
24 infants aged 5-6 months were shown a tall & a short rabbit passing behind a screen with a window
Possible condition: the tall rabbit can be seen passing, but the short rabbit cannot
Impossible condition: neither rabbit appeared at the window
What were the Findings of the VOE study?
infants looked for an avg. of 33 seconds at the Impossible event
vs.
avg. of 25 seconds at the Possible event
What did Baillargeon interpret from the Findings?
she interpreted that the infants were surprised at the Impossible condition
SO
demonstrates an understanding of object permanence
What type of study is the VOE rabbit study?
occlusion study = where 1 object is occluding (obstructing) another
Did Baillargeon repeat the experiment?
repeated w different types of VOE
- containment = when an object enters a container it should still be there when the container is opened
- support = the idea that an object should fall when unsupported but not when it is on a horizontal surface (train & gap in tracks)
Did Baillargeon get the same findings from her other VOE studies?
in all cases infants have shown that they pay more attention to impossible events & so appear to have an understanding of the physical world
What did B find abt object permanence?
B found that children as young as 3.5 months have developed object permanence
= much earlier than Piaget theorised
