POSSIBLE CONDITION- tallrabbit can be seen passing window but short cannot
IMPOSSIBLE CONDITION- neitherrabbit can be seen passing window
This was to test if children had a good understanding on how the world worked, the impossible condition violates their expectations of seeing the rabbits pass the window
Baillargeon and Graber VOE findings
Impossible- infants looked avg 33.07s
Possible- 25.11s
difference of 7.96s in attention
Interpreted as infants were surprised and therefore continued looking for the rabbit to pass as expected
This suggests they have an understanding of object permanence
PRS is universal- Hespos and van Marle
Without learning and experience we all have a good understanding of the properties of physical objects
E.g. letting go of keys, they will fall to the floor
This understanding requires our physical reasoning system and this is universal
PRS is innate otherwise we would expect cultural differences in understanding (lack of evidence to suggest this)
Strength of Baillargeon as she believed our PRS was universal/innate
What is a strength with Baillargeon's research against Piaget?
VOE research is a better method for investigating a child's understanding of the world
Piaget assumed when an infant's attention was shifted from the object it no longer knew it existsed
It could have been that they lost interest
Baillargeon eliminates this confounding variable due to children looking longer (7.96s)