AO1 - Baillargeon’s Explanation

• Renee Baillargeon wanted to show how young children develop a cognitive understanding of the world around them.
• Baillargeon's research on causal reasoning in infants furthered our understanding of Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
• Baillargeon’s explanations of early infant abilities include knowledge of the physical world and violation of expectation research.
• Knowledge of the physical world refers to our understanding how the physical world works. For example, object permanence in infants.
• Violation of expectation research is a method of investigation studying an infant’s 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 given situations.
• If children show surprise in given situations it means they have an intact knowledge of the world, as the expected behaviour did not occur.
• Baillargeon suggested that young babies had a better understanding of the world than Piaget believed.
• Baillargeon used a technique that has come to be known as the violation of expectation (VOE) paradigm. It exploits the fact that infants tend to look for longer at things they have not encountered before.
• In a VOE experiment, an infant is first introduced to a novel situation. They are repeatedly shown this stimulus until they indicate, by looking away, that it is no longer new to them.
• Baillargeon’s studies indicate that three-month-old infants have an understanding of objects that Piaget says does not appear until nine to twelve months.
• Baillargeon suggested that even very young children have an awareness of the physical properties of objects.
• In Baillargeon & Graber (1987) infants looked for an average of 33.07 seconds at an unexpected condition compared to 25.11 seconds at an expected condition.
• Baillargeon (2004) explained VOE experiments as those that test children’s abilities, which she described as more sophisticated that Piaget believed.
• In a typical Baillargeon experiment babies see two test events; an expected event which is consistent with the view that something may happen, and an unexpected event, which violates this.
• Baillargeon & Graber (1987) showed 24 babies, aged 5-6 months, a tall and a short rabbit passing behind a screen with a window. A baby with object permanence would understand that as the rabbits are passed behind the screen (hidden), they are still present.
• In Baillargeon & Graber (1987) there were two test conditions, an expected condition where the short rabbit cannot be seen behind the screen but is expected to come out the other side. A second condition, unexpected where the tall rabbit could not be seen behind the screen in the window, as would be expected.
• Baillargeon & Graber (1987) suggest that a baby who has object permanence would show surprise when faced with the unexpected event.
• In Baillargeon & Graber for children to be surprised by the unexpected event, they must have known that the tall rabbit would appear in the window. This demonstrates a good understanding of object permanence.
• Baillargeon conducted different types of VOE experiments, from occlusion (rabbit study) to containment (using containers) and support (expectation that objects fall when not supported).
• Baillargeon et al (2012) proposed a theory of infant physical reasoning, suggesting we are born with a physical reasoning system (PRS), which is our basic understanding about the world around us.
• The main focus of Baillargeon's research is infant cognition and early development.
• Violation of expectation research is a technique based on the idea that an infant will show surprise when witnessing an impossible event.