Baillargeon's explanation of early infant abilities

• What does Baillargeon show an explanation for?

  early infant abilities, including knowledge of the physical world; violation of explanation research.
• Who is Rennee Baillargeon?

  A French-Canadian researcher who has worked in the US and Canada.
• What idea did Baillargeon challenge?

  Baillargeon challenged Piaget's ideas about babies abilities in the sensorimotor stage, including object permanence.
• Over many years, what ideas did Baillargeon test?

  She has tested babies understanding of object permanence and object persistence, involving occlusion.
• What is object permanence?

  Understanding an object still exists even when it is outside of our visual field.
• What is occlusion?

  When something partially or fully hidden behind another object.
• What did Baillargeon use to test object permanence and occlusion?

  Violation of expectation (VOE) trials.
• What is violation of expectation?

  Infants are shown something they do not expect to happen, something which is impossible if you understand physical laws.
• One type of VOE study is an occlusion study testing object permanence. What is another related research study?

  Testing containment and support.
• What is containment and support?

  Containment being that when an object enters a container it should be there when the container is opened; and support being that an object on a horizontal surface won't fall but an unsupported object will fall.
• What did all of Baillargeon's result show?

  Babies are more interested in 'impossible' events of all types, and so appear to have an understanding of the rules governing the physical world.
• Describe one study by Baillargeon which tested violation of expectation in infants:

  • 24 babies, aged 5-6 months.
  • in the familiarisation event, a short rabbit and tall rabbit pass behind a screen. Neither are seen as it fits with the expectations of object permanence.
  • In the test events there are two conditions - one expected, where a short rabbit is not seen due to height and unexpected where a tall rabbit is not seen through the window, going against physical laws.
• What was found in Baillargeon's study which tested violation of expectation in infants?

  The baby gazed at the expected event for 25.11 seconds, and gazed at the unexpected event for 33.07 seconds.
• The researchers took the long gazing time as evidence that what in the child was activated?

  curiosity
• What did Baillargeon explain the infants early abilities to be due to?

  An innate physical reasoning system (PRS)
• What does the innate system include an understanding of?

  Object persistence. Infants quickly learn that one object can block another.
• What is object persistence?

  Objects stay in existence and do not change structure.
• What explains the babies curiosity in the unexpected scene?

  Babies curiosity when they seek something that can not be explained by the innate physical reasoning systems means that they actively seek information from the environment to further their understanding.
• What dos the physical reasoning systems give babies an understanding of?

  Gives them some understanding of physical laws from birth.
• Wha age were the infants showing understanding of object permanence in Baillargeon's study?

  3 1/2 months old
• What are the two strengths of Baillargeon's studies?

  • her research may give us a better understanding of infant capabilities than Piaget's.
  • High control
• Why was Piaget's study criticised?

  Perhaps in his studies, babies looked away because they just lost interest rather than because they thought the object had ceased to exist. 
• Why does Baillargeon not recieve the same criticism that Piaget did?

  Baillargeon has a control group in all of her experiments of possible events. This means length of time gazing of the possible event could be compared to length of gazing at the impossible event.

  The longer time gazing at the impossible event was interpreted as surprise and this as an understanding of physical laws including object permanence.
• What controls were there in the study?

  • person timing cannot see whether there is an impossible or possible event being shown - to reduce researcher bias.
  • Baby cannot see the researcher - to reduce demand characteristics.
  • Parent is not visible to the baby - to reduce demand characteristics. The parenst also had eyes closed so they did not know what event is being shown.
• Additionally to the controls, what procedure was used in the studies?

  Double blind
• What is a double blind procedure?

  Neither the participant nor the researcher knows the aim of the study or what condition a participant is in.
• How was double blind used in Baillargeon's research?

  The person collecting the data (timing) could see only the baby from behind, so didn't know what condition the baby was in each time.
• What is a limitation of Baillargeon's research?

  It is hard to judge what an infant understands.
• Why is it hard to judge what an infant understands?

  Just because the infant responds as if they understand physical laws, we cannot know that they really do understand them. We are making an assumption which may not be true. Responding to a physical event is not the same as reasoning about it.
• Why is the distinction between responding to a physical event not being the same as reasoning about it important?

  Because the cognitive approach i concerned with mental processes that are mainly in our conscious awareness. Words like 'understanding' and 'reasoning' involve conscious thought. However, babies may not be doing any reasoning at all and we can't know because the can't tell us. Their early abilities might be purely biological with no understanding at all.
• What debates are involved in Baillargeon's explanation?

  • nurture / nature - The physical reasoning system is innate (nature) and nurture builds on the physical reasoning system understanding through the environment.
  • Nomothetic - Large sample and establishes general rules applied to all.
  • Determinism - biological factor of the physical reasoning system and environmental experiences.