Baillargeon’s Explanation Of Infant Abilities

Question 1

What type of explanation is Baillargeon’s?

Answer 1

Nativist - suggests babies are born with cognitive structures which determine their abilities.

Question 2

What is the main difference between Baillargeon and Piaget?

Answer 2

Piaget assumed that when a child stops looking for an object it is because they believe it no longer exists whereas Baillargeon assumes that a child stops looking for an object due to other factors such as lack of motivation and interest.

Question 3

What research did Baillargeon conduct?

Answer 3

Violation of expectation.

Question 4

Outline Baillargeon’s research.

Answer 4

1. 24 infants, aged 5-6 months.
2. Showed infants 2 conditions - possible and impossible.
3. Infants shown a screen with a window.
4. Possible: tall rabbit can be seen in window.
   Impossible: No rabbit seen at window.
5. Possible - infants looked for 25s.
   Impossible - 33s.

Question 5

What conclusions can be drawn from Baillargeon’s study?

Answer 5

-Infants look longer at things they haven’t experienced before.
-Infants understand object permanence.

Question 6

According to Baillargeon, what is meant by containment?

Answer 6

Ability to recognise that when an object is placed in a container and the container is closed, the object will still be there when the container is opened.

Question 7

According to Baillargeon, what is meant by support?

Answer 7

Ability to recognise that an object will fall if unsupported but will remain stationary if resting on a horizontal stable surface.

Question 8

What are the main arguments of Baillargeon’s theory?

Answer 8

1. Children acquire object permanence at 5 months.
2. Humans are born with an ability to learn more about the physical world with ease.
3. Humans have a physical reasoning system which is an innate predisposition to pay attention to ‘suprising’ events (those not in line with our expectations).
4. In the first few weeks of life, babies develop event categories.

Question 9

According to Baillargeon, what are event categories?

Answer 9

How objects interact.

Question 10

Give 2 strengths of Baillargeon’s theory.

Answer 10

1.Evidence that the PRS is universal.
Helps and Marle: there is a good basic understanding of the wold regardless of culture and experience e.g key example.
Shows basic understanding of world is innate.
Valid concept.

2.VOE method has good validity.
Baillargeon controlled confounding variable (distraction) by only measuring time spent looking at stimulus.
Shows CV wouldn’t affect whether child understands OBP.
Research has greater validity than Piaget’s.

Question 11

Give one weakness of Baillargeon’s theory.

Answer 11

1. Assumption of children staring longer due to event being unexpected may be untrue.
   Children may be more interested.
   A link between OBP and staring longer was simply inferred.
   VOE method may be invalid way of researching understanding