Baillargeon

Question 1

What did Baillargeon suggest about younger babies?

Answer 1

They have a better understanding of the physical world compared to what Piaget said

Question 2

What is the method she developed to investigate an infant’s understanding of the physical world?

Answer 2

violation of expectation (VOE)

Question 3

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION METHOD (VOE)
What are the 2 events that infants see in this method?

Answer 3

expected event- meets the babies expectations
unexpected event- VOE, do not fit with infants understanding

Question 4

The VOE method is used to test what?

Answer 4

object permanence

Question 5

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION RESEARCH (VOE)
What is the procedure for this method?

Answer 5

• 24 infants were shown a tall and short rabbit pass behind a screen with a window.
• In the impossible condition, neither rabbit appeared at the window

Question 6

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION RESEARCH (VOE)
What are the findings of the rabbit experiment?

Answer 6

• The infants looked for 33 secs average at the impossible event, which is more than the 25 secs in the possible condition
• Researchers interpreted this as infants being surprised at the impossible condition (demonstrates understanding of object permanence)

Question 7

What did Baillargeon propose about physical reasoning system (PRS)?

Answer 7

Physical reasoning is innate which becomes more sophisticated as we learn from experience

Question 8

Object persistence is one aspect of the world we have an innate understanding of. What is object persistence?

Answer 8

Object remains in existence and does not spontaneously alter in structure

Question 9

What is an occlusion study (e.g. Baillargeon study)?

Answer 9

Where one object occludes another, it is in front of it

Question 10

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION RESEARCH (VOE)
This research is also used to test infant understanding of ‘CONTAINMENT’. What is this?

Answer 10

Idea that when an object is seen to enter a container, it should still be there when the container is opened

Question 11

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION RESEARCH (VOE)
This research is also used to test infant understanding of ‘SUPPPORT’. What is this?

Answer 11

Idea that an object should fall when unsupported but not when it is on horizontal surface

Question 12

VIOLATION OF EXPECTATION RESEARCH (VOE)
What is the conclusion of this research?

Answer 12

Infants pay more attention to ‘impossible’ events and so appear to have an understanding of the physical world.