Lecture 3

Question 1

What is object permanence?

Answer 1

The understanding that objects endure in time and trace a continuous path in space, even when not visible.

Question 2

How did William James describe an infant’s early perception of the world?

Answer 2

As a ‘great blooming, buzzing confusion,’ where sensory input is overwhelming and undifferentiated.

Question 3

Who is Jean Piaget, and what did he study?

Answer 3

A Swiss developmental psychologist who studied how children’s thinking develops over time.

Question 4

What are Piaget’s key findings on object permanence?

Answer 4

• 4-8 months: Babies fail to search for hidden objects.
• 8-12 months: Babies make the A-not-B error.
• 12-18 months: Babies struggle with hidden displacement tasks.

Question 5

What is the A-not-B error?

Answer 5

When a baby repeatedly finds an object at location A, but when the object is moved to location B, they still search at A.

Question 6

Why do babies fail at the hidden displacement task?

Answer 6

• Notice both locations the object was moved to.
• Remember those locations.
• Recall where they have already searched.

Question 7

Why might babies struggle with object permanence tasks beyond lacking the concept itself?

Answer 7

• Difficulty planning complex actions.
• Trouble inhibiting previous responses.
• Limited memory and attention resources.

Question 8

What are some ways researchers study infant cognition without requiring complex actions?

Answer 8

• Sucking rate – measures interest.
• Heart rate – indicates interest or fear.
• Reaching/crawling – reveals preference and memory.
• Visual orienting – shows interest and anticipation.
• Visual tracking – measures attention.
• Visual sustained attention (looking time) – reveals expectations and learning.

Question 9

What is the logic behind habituation studies?

Answer 9

Babies get bored with repeated stimuli but show renewed interest when exposed to something new or unexpected.

Question 10

What is the Violation of Expectation (VoE) method?

Answer 10

A technique where infants look longer at events that violate their expectations, suggesting they understand certain physical rules.

Question 11

What are the four principles of object-hood proposed by Elizabeth Spelke?

Answer 11

• Continuity – Objects exist over time and follow a continuous path.
• Solidity – Objects cannot pass through each other.
• Cohesion – Objects move as unified wholes.
• Contact causality – Objects influence each other only through direct contact.

Question 12

What are examples of things that are NOT considered objects?

Answer 12

• A pile of sand
• A sneeze
• A party
• A lightning bolt
• A hole in a wall