Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities CD

Question 1

Knowledge of the physical world

Answer 1

Refers to our understanding of how the physical world works

Question 2

Violation of expectation research

Answer 2

a method used to investigate infant knowledge of the world

Question 3

What did Baillargeon suggest about babies understanding of the physcical world?

Answer 3

young babies had a better understanding of the physical world than Piaget expected.

Question 4

What did Baillargeon propose?

Answer 4

the lack of understanding of object permanence could be explained differently. E.g. Young babies might lack the necessary motor skills to try and find the hidden object, or they may lose interest as they are easily distracted.

Question 5

What is the violation of expectation VOE method used to test?

Answer 5

object permanence

Question 6

Procedure → Baillargeon and Graber

Answer 6

• 24 babies aged 5-6 months
• Tall and short rabbit passed behind a screen with a window
• In familiarisation event, baby is shown short and tall rabbits disappearing as they pass the screen (fits our expectations)
• test events occur
• Baby with object permanence will show surprise at unexpected event

Question 7

In test events there are 2 conditions?

Baillargeon and Graber

Answer 7

• Short rabbit passes screen with window but cant be seen because its too short → expected event
• Tall rabbit passes through screen with a window but cannot be seen → unexpected event

Question 8

FIndings to Baillargeon and Grabers study

Answer 8

• Babies looked at unexpected event for average of 33.07s compared to expected event of 25.11s
• Interpreted this as babies must have been surprised
• For surprised behaviour, babies must have understood how the tall bunny must have been seen
• Demonstrating good object permanence

Question 9

What key word can be used to describe Baillargeon and Grabers study?

Answer 9

This study can be described as an occlusion study, in which one object is in front of another.

Question 10

Other studies

Answer 10

• VOE has been used to test containment and support
• In all of these cases infants have shown to pay more attention the the unexpected events
• Thus appearing to have a good understanding of the world (Hespos and Baillargeon)

Question 11

Containment

Answer 11

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

Question 12

support

Answer 12

an object should fall when unsupported but not when it is on a horizontal surface

Question 13

Baillargeon’s theory of infant physical reasoning

Answer 13

Humans are born with a physical reasoning system PRS, which is the idea that we are hardwired with both a basic understanding of the world and also the ability to learn more details easily.
* Initially we have primitive awareness of the physical properties of the world eg object permanence

Question 14

Development continues as follows:

Answer 14

In the first few weeks of a baby’s life they begin to identify event categories, which each correspond to one way in which objects interact. This explains why the unexpected events capture the baby’s attention as the nature of the PRS means they are predisposed to pay attention to new events that might allow them to develop their understanding of the physical world.

Question 15

Validity of violation of expectation

strength

Answer 15

• VOE fills a gap in Piaget’s research in object permanence as simple ‘distraction’ would not affect the outcome of the study
• The only thing the VOE measures is how long the baby looks at a visual scene
  Greater validity than Piaget’s because a confounding variable is controlled

Question 16

counterpoint to validity of VOE

limitation

Answer 16

• Piaget pointed out that acting in accordance with a principle is not the same as understanding it → Bremner
• Even if babies decide to pay more attention to one thing that another, it does not mean that they understand it
• Understanding means it would be thought about consciously and applied reasoning
  May not represent change in babies cognitive abilities

Question 17

universal understanding

strength

Answer 17

• Hespos and Marle pin tout that we have very good understanding of the basic characteristics of the physical world
• Eg everyone understands gravity
• Does not require past experience
• Universal understanding suggests that a basic understanding of the world is innate
  Suggests that PRS is correct

Question 18

may not be object permenance

limitation

Answer 18

• Piaget suggested that babies respond to unexpected events but this does not mean they understand it
• Babies response may not even be to the unexpectedness of the event
• VOE only shows that babies find certain events more interesting
• The link between this and object permanence has been inferred
  VOE method is not an entirely valid way to study a very young child’s understanding of the physical world