Baillargeon's explanation of infant abilities

Question 1

What did Baillargeon suggest that extends Piaget’s theory?

Answer 1

• Young babies have a better understanding of the physial world than Piaget suggested

Question 2

What does did Baillargeon’s early research suggest?

Answer 2

• A lack of understanding of object permenance may be explained differently to Piaget
• E.g: young babies may lack necessary motor skills to pursue a hidden object, or may lose interest as they are easily distracted

Question 3

What is violation of expectation research?

Answer 3

• ‘In a typical experiment, babues see 2 test events- an expected event, which is consistent with the expectation examined in the experiment, and an unexpected event, which violates this experiment’
• Infants usually see 2 conditions in which objects pass in and out of sight

Question 4

What was Baillargeon and Graber’s VOE procedure?

Answer 4

• Showed 24 babies (5-6 months old) a tall and short rabbit- passing behind a screen with a window
• Familiarisation event= shown both rabbits disappearing as they pass behind the screen (fits expectations of OP)
• 2 conditions- 1= expected- short rabbit passes behind screen and is not visible until it appears on the other side
• 2= unexpected- tall rabbit passes behind screen and is not seen
• Baby with object permenance should show suprise when shown unexpected event

Question 5

What were Baillargeon and Graber’s VOE findings?

Answer 5

• Babies looked for average of 33.07 seconds at unexpected event vs 25.11 seconds at expected
• Means babies show suprise at unexpected event so look for longer

Question 6

What have other VOE studies found?

Answer 6

• Baillargeon and Graber’s study= occlusion study (one object occludes another- is in front of it)
• VOE studies test infant understanding of containment and support
• Hespos and Baillargeon found infants pay more attention to unexpected events so have greater understandings of the physical world

Question 7

What is containment?

Answer 7

• When an object is seen to enter a container, it should still be there when the container is opened

Question 8

What is support?

Answer 8

• An object should fall when unsupported, but not on a horizontal surface

Question 9

What is Baillergeon’s theory of infant physical reasoning?

Answer 9

• Humans are born with a physical reasoning system (PRS)
• Hardwired with basic understanding of the physical world, and the ability to learn more details easily
• Primitive awareness of physical properties of the world- more sophisticated as we learn via experience
• E.g: object persistance (object remains in existence and does not alter in structure)

Question 10

How does she propose development occurs?

Answer 10

• Development occurs in 1st few weeks of life- babies identify event categories
• Each category corresponds to a way that objects interact
• E.g: occlusion events occur when one object blocks the view of another
• Unexpected events capture attention as the nature of babies’ PRS means they are predisposed to attened to new events that may allow them to develop their understanding of the physical world

Question 11

Strength-
I- Validity of the VOE method

Answer 11

D- Gets around limitations of Piaget’s work= the assumption that when a baby loses interest in a hidden object, they no longer believe it exists- Piaget fails to distinguish between this and the possibility that the baby became distracted by other visual stimuli. The VOE method suggests distraction does not affect the outcome- the only thing measured is how long the baby lookds at the visual scene
E- Means Baillergeon’s method has greater validity than Piaget’s as CV are controlled, and provides support for her theory of early cognitive development

Question 12

Limitation-
I- Issues with supporting research

Answer 12

D- Piaget suggests that acting in accordance with a principle is not the same as understanding it (Bremner). Even if babies can recognise/devote more attention to unexpected events, this does not mean they understand it. Understanding something means it can be thought about consciously and applied to reasoning about different aspects of the world
E- Means that even though babies appear to respond to unexpected events, this may not reflect a change in their cognitive ability

Question 13

Limitation-
I- May not be object permenance

Answer 13

D- Piaget suggests that babies respond to unexpected events but this does not mean they understand it. Methodological issues include that responses are not due to unexpectedness, but due to increased interest. We infer a link between this response and object permenance
E- Means the VOE method may not be a valid way to study understanding of the physical world

Question 14

Strength-
I- Universal understanding

Answer 14

D- Hespos and Van Marle suggest we have good cultural understanding of the basic characteristics of the physical world, regardless of culture/personal experience. E.g: if you drop a keyring it falls to the ground- does not require past experience of dropping keys/ cultural knowledge about kets. Universal understanding= innate. If it were not innate, we would expect significant cultural/individual differences
E- Innate basic understanding of the physical world suggest that PRS is correct

Question 15

Evaluation extra-
I- Credibility

Answer 15

D- Challenges to PRS suggest it is difficult to tell whether babies respond to the unexpected nature of events, and even if they do, this may not indicate real understanding- may be due to increased interest. Does not mean babies are capable of conciously thinking about unexpected events. But, PRS is consistent with what we know about development of other visual systems- e.g: use crude patterns to judge distance at early age but experience needed to use more subtle visual cues
E- PRS is a credible ideas as it fits in well with what we already know about the developing visual system