Baillargeons Explanation Of Early Infant Abilities

Question 1

Knowledge of the physical world

Answer 1

The extent to which we understand how the physical world works. An example of this knowledge is object permanence. There’s a debate about which ages children develop this kind of knowledge.

Question 2

Nativist Approach

Answer 2

A theory that suggests humans are born with innate abilities

Question 3

Physical reasoning system

Answer 3

An innate system that provides a framework for reasoning about the displacement and interactions of physical objects

Question 4

Violation of expectation research

Answer 4

An approach to investigating infant knowledge of the world
The idea is that if children understand how the physical world operates then they will expect certain things to happen in particular situations.
If these dont occur and children react accordingly, it suggests that they have an intact knowledge of that aspect of the world.

Question 5

Renee Baillargeon

Answer 5

Suggested infants in the sensorimotor stage may have better developed understanding of the physical world than previously thought.
Piaget suggested that infants didn’t reach for a hidden object because they lacked an understanding of object permanence.

Baillargeon suggested it might be because they lacked the necessary motor skills to complete the task.

Question 6

Baillargeon - VOE research

Answer 6

Baillargeon developed VOE technique to compare infant reactions to an expected and unexpected event and thus was able to make inferences about the infants cognitive abilities.

The idea is that infants will look at new things for LONGER than they will look at things that they have encountered before.

Question 7

Baillargeon and Graber - procedure

Answer 7

• 24 infants aged 5-6 months were shown a tall or short rabbit passing behind a screen with a window.
  -possible condition - the tall rabbit can be seen passing the window but the short one cant.
  -impossible condition - tall rabbit didn’t appear at window

Question 8

Baillargeon findings

Answer 8

-infants looked for an average of 33.09 seconds at impossible condition compared to 25.11 seconds at possible condition.
-this was interpreted as meaning that infants were suprised at the impossible condition as they looked at it for longer
-this was because they knew the tall rabbit should’ve have reappeared at the window

Question 9

Baillargeon - conclusions

Answer 9

This demonstrated an understanding of object permanence at less than sixth months 0f age

Question 10

Occlusion study

Answer 10

Experiment by Bailigeron and Gaber is an example of an occlusion study in which one object occludes another ie its in front of it

Question 11

Containment

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Support

Answer 12

Is the idea that an object should fall when unsupported but not when its on a horizontal surface

Question 13

Hespos and Baillargeon

Answer 13

In all of these cases infants have show that they pay more attention to ‘impossible’ events and so appear to understand the physical world

Question 14

Actual study

Answer 14

Rabbit
The tall rabbit should be seen

Question 15

What did Baillargeon propose?

Answer 15

Humans are born with a PRS.
This means that we’re born hardwired with a basic understanding of the physical world AND the ability to learn more details easily.
This is known as a nativist approach because it suggests humans are born with innate abilities
This differs from Piaget ideas which suggested that everything is learned through interaction.

Question 16

Baillargeons theory of infant physical reasoning (BTOIPR)

Answer 16

-initially we have a primitive awareness of the physical properties of the world.
-this becomes more sophisticated as we learn from experience
-at birth we have object persistence, this is similar to Piagets idea of OP

Question 17

BTOIPR - part 2

Answer 17

In the first few weeks of life, infants begin to identify event categories.
Each event category corresponds to one way in which objects interact.
Occlusion events occur when one object blocks the view of another
Because a child is born with a basic understanding of object persistence and quickly learns that one object can block the view of another, by the time they’re tested in tasks like the rabbit one, children have a good understanding that the rabbit should appear at the window.
The ‘impossible’ event captures infants attention because the nature of their PRS means they are predisposed to attend to new events that might allow them to develop their understanding of the physical world .