Baillargeon's Explanation of Infant Abilities Flashcards
What did Baillargeon suggest?
Suggested that even young babies have a well-developed understanding of object permanence
What method did Baillargeon develop?
The violation of expectation
What did Baillargeon investigate?
Investigated infant understanding of the physical world
Outline violation of expectation research
1) Control condition = object behaves as someone would expect
2) Short and tall rabbits passed behind a screen with a window
3) Both possible and impossible events were shown
4) The infants looked longer at the impossible event than in the possible condition
What were the findings of violation of expectation research?
The infants looked longer at the impossible event than in the possible condition
Suggests that infants were surprised at the impossible condition, demonstrating an understanding of object permanence
What is a strength of Baillargeon’s research?
More valid than Piaget
Confounding variables are controlled. e.g. child wouldn’t have lost interest because that wouldn’t explain why they looked longer at impossible events.
What is research support for the idea that we are born with a physical reasoning system?
Hespos + Marle
What did Hespos and Marle find?
Found that everyone knew the keys must fall to the floor when dropped.
This requires a PRS.
There are NO cultural differences, suggesting it is a universal concept which is innate.
What is a weakness of Baillargeon’s research?
It is hard to judge what an infant understands.
There may be several reasons why they might find one scene more interesting than another.
Not entirely valid method.
