infant cognition

Question 1

what is object permanence?

Answer 1

objects continue to exist even when out of sight

Question 2

in piaget’s search task, lack of search means lack of _________ ______________.

Answer 2

object permanence

Question 3

how does jean piaget’s search task work?

Answer 3

• show babies exciting toy, hide toy under cloth & see if they search
• result: babies under 8 months old do not search. objects cease to exist when hidden. no object permanence.

Question 4

what are the 3 studies providing evidence that babies have object permanence?

Answer 4

1. car study (baillargeon, 1986)
2. rotating screen (baillargeon, 1986)
3. disappearing minnie (baillargeon & aguiar, 2002)

Question 5

in the car study by baillargeon (1986), there are 2 groups and 2 events. what are they?

Answer 5

2 groups of babies:
- 6.5 mth olds
- 8 mth olds

2 events:
- habituation
- test (possible - box behind tracks, impossible - box on tracks blocking car)

Question 6

what is the reasoning behind the car study by baillargeon (1986)?

Answer 6

infants have object permanence if they understood:
1. box continued to exist even when hidden by screen
2. car continued to exist even when rolled behind screen
3. car could not roll through box

thus they should be surprised and look longer at impossible eent as compared to the possible one. (VOE)

Question 7

what is the result of the car study by baillargeon (1986)?

Answer 7

both 6.5 and 8 mths old infants look longer at impossible event - object permanence is present at 6.5 mths old.

*tb shows 3 mths

Question 8

describe the rotating screen study by baillargeon (1986). [groups, events, results]

Answer 8

2 groups of babies:
- 4.5 mth olds
- 5.5 mth olds

2 events:
- habituation (no box behind, screen can rotate 180 degrees)
- test (possible - box behind, screen stops and impossitble - box behind, screen continues rotating)

results:
both groups look longer at impossible event. they know box is behind, displaying presence of object permanence at 4.5 mths.

*tb shows 3.5 mths

Question 9

describe the disappearing minnie study by baillargeon & anguiar (2002). [groups, events, results]

Answer 9

2 groups of babies:
- 3 mth olds
- 3.5 mth olds

2 events:
- habituation (minnie moves through window with holes)
- test (possible - high window, can’t see minnie as she is blocked by high window and impossible event - low window, still can’t see minnie)

result:
3 mth olds look longer at impossible event while 3.5 mth olds look equally long (maybe they think there are 2 mice)

Question 10

what 3 things do infants have to do to succeed in search task? why can’t they execute those to succeed at the search task?

Answer 10

1. represent hidden object in memory
2. plan a series of actions
3. execute that series of actions

involves brain development esp. in frontal lobe which grows in adolescence. babies’ not developed yet, so hard for them.

Question 11

why do infants succeed at object permanence tests with the VOE method?

Answer 11

issue lies with planning and execution.

in a VOE task, they only have to represent hidden object in memory. don’t need to plan nor execute series of actions like in piaget’s search task.

Question 12

object permanence is present at ___ months.

Answer 12

2.5

Question 13

car study shows that object permanence is present at ____ months?

Answer 13

6.5

*tb shows 3 mths

Question 14

rotating screen study shows that object permanence is present at ____ months?

Answer 14

4.5

*tb shows 3.5 mths

Question 15

what are the 3 main findings in baillargeon’s lab regarding infant’s ability to understand object interaction (interpret events)?

Answer 15

1. infants divide the world into event categories.
   occlusion - 3.5 mths
   containment - 7.5 mths
   collision
   support
2. infants identify variables that allow them to make sense of events in each category.
   width - 4 mths
   height - 7.5 mths
   transparency - 9.5 mths
3. infants learn about each category separately. don’t transfer knowledge from one category to another.

Question 16

what is the novelty preference method?

Answer 16

1. show stimulus until habituated
2. test with same and novel stimuli
3. if look reliably longer at novel stimuli, can distinguish between them

Question 17

describe the novelty preference method used by starkey et al. (1990) to test if babies can distinguish btwn diff. numbers. [groups, events, results]

Answer 17

2 groups of babies 6 mths old

2 events:
- habituation (set of 26 displays of either 2 or 3 objects)
- test (4 displays of 2 objects and 4 displays of 3 objects

results:
- habituated to 2 objects, look longer at 3 objects
- habituated to 3 objects, look longer at 2 objects
- can distinguish btwn numbers
- this ability is present at birth

Question 18

at birth, babies can distinguish between different numbers. they can also do it when the numbers are bigger, but those numbers need to be ___ times bigger betwn each other for them to notice.

Answer 18

2

eg. 12 vs 24, 8 vs 16, 50 vs 100 (can)

eg. 8 vs 10, 4 vs 6, 48 vs 60 (cannot)

Question 19

can infants add and subtract?

Answer 19

• can, with small numbers
• tested with taking away and adding in mice dolls behind a screen (Wynn 1992)
• can keep track of objects over time

Question 20

can infants distinguish btwn inert and self-moving objects?

Answer 20

• can
• all objects inert until proven otherwise
• motion in space insufficient, must show that it is self-controlled

Question 21

describe the study by yuan & baillargeon (2008) which tests for inert vs self-moving object expectations in infants. [groups, conditions, events]

Answer 21

2 groups of infants 2.5 mths old

2 conditions: inert and self-moving

2 test events:
- supported (block below to support inert/self-moving object)
- unsupported (no block below to support inert/self-moving object)

results:
- inert condition: look longer at unsupported event, know that inert objects cannot float in midair
- self-moving condition: look equally at both events, know that self-moving objects have internal force that ay help them resist gravity