Baillargeon's explanation of infant abilities

Question 1

Early research on knowledge of physical world

Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

Answer 1

Suggested babies had better understanding of physical world than Piaget suggested
Proposed that lack of understanding of object permenance could be explained differently
E.g. Young babies might lack necessary motor skills to pursue hidden object or may lose interest as they’re easily distracted

Question 2

Violation of expectation

Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

Answer 2

‘In typical experiment, babies see 2 test events - expected event, consistent w/ expectation examined in experiment & unexpected event, which violates expectation’ (Baillargeon 2004)

Question 3

Violation of expectation: Object permenance research

Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

Answer 3

Baillargeon & Graber (1987) showed 24 babies, aged 5-6 months, a tall & short rabbit passing behind screen w/ windoe
Familiarisation event fits our expectations of object perm (disappearing)
1st test event (expected) - tall rabbit can be seen in window but not short rabbit
2nd test event (unexpected) - tall rabbit can be seen in window
A baby w/ object permenance would be surpised when shown unexpected event

Question 4

Object permenance findings

Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

Answer 4

Babies looked for average of 33.07s at unexpected compared to 25.11s for expected
Researchers interpreted this meaning babies were surprised at unexpected
There4, they know that tall rabbit should’ve reappeared at window
Demonstrates good understanding of object perm

Question 5

Theory of infant physical reasoning

Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

Answer 5

Baillargeon proposed humans are born w/ physical reasoning system (PRS)
Born hardwired w/ basic understanding of physical world & ability to learn more details easily
Initially, we have primitive awareness of physical properties of world & this becomes more sophisticated as we learn from experience
We have understanding of object perm from birth
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Question 6

Evaluation: Validity of VOE

Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

Answer 6

Strength - validity of VOE method