Baillergeon's explanation of infant abilities.

• Knowledge of the physical world

  = Refers to our understanding of how the physical world works. Eg: object permanence.
• Early research

  • Piaget= sensorimotor stage, babies lack knowledge of object permanence- based on research that babies would lose interest in an object once out of sight.
  • Baillergeon suggested that young babies had a better understanding of the physical world than Piaget suggested.- proposed that a lack of understanding of object permanence could be explained differently.
• Violation of expected research

  = A method used to investigate infant 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 particular situations.

  • Babies see two test events- an expected event, which is consistent with the expectations examined in the experiment, and an unexpected event, which violates this expectation. So if VOE method is used to test object permanence, infants will typically see two conditions in which objects pass in and out of sight.
• VOE- findings

  • The babies looked for an average of 33.07 seconds at the unexpected event compared to 25.11 seconds at the expected event.
  • This is interpreted as meaning that babies were surprised at the unexpected condition. For them to be surprised it follows that they must have known that the tall rabbit should have reappeared at the window. This demonstrates a good understanding of object permanence.
• Other studies

  • Baillargeon's study is an example of an occlusion study, in which one object occludes another. VOE experiments have also been used to test infant understanding of containment and support.
  • Containment is the idea that when an object is seen to enter a container it should still be there when the container is opened.
  • Support is the idea that an object should fall when unsupported but not when on a horizontal surface.
  • Infants have shown they pay more attention to unexpected events and so appear to have a good understanding of the physical world.
• Baillargeon's theory of infant physical reasoning

  Physical reasoning= we are born with both a basic understanding of the physical world and also the ability to learn more details easily.

  • Initially we have a primitive awareness of the physical world and this becomes more sophisticated as we learn from experience. One aspect of the world of which we have an understanding from birth is object persistence= idea that an object remains in existence and does not spontaneously alter in structure.
• Development of physical reasoning

  • In the first few weeks of life babies begin to identify event categories. Each event category corresponds to one way in which objects interact. Eg: occlusion events take place when one object blocks the view of another. Because a baby is born with a basic understanding of object persistence and quickly learns that one object can block their view of another, by the time they are tested in VOE tasks babies actually have a good understanding that the tall rabbit should appear at the window.
• Development of physical reasoning

  • The unexpected event captures the babys attention because their physical reasoning systems allow them to attend events that might allow them to develop an understanding of the physical world.
• Evaluation- validity of VOE

  • VOE method avoids a limitation of Piaget's research- his assumption that when a baby loses interest in a hidden object they no longer believe it exists.
  • Piaget's method of studying object permanence cant distinguish between this and the alternative possibility that the baby simply became distracted by other visual stimuli and therefore stopped looking in the original place.
  • The VOE method overcomes this because distraction would not affect the outcome, the only thing being measured is how long the baby looks at the visual scene- so has greater validity.
• Evaluation- counterpoint

  • Piaget pointed out that acting in accordance with a principle is not the same as understanding it. Even if babies are to recognise and devoted more attention to unexpected events, this doesn't necessarily mean that they understand them. Understanding something means it can be thought about consciously and applied to reasoning about different aspects of the world.
  • So even though babies do appear to respond to unexpected conditions, this may not represent a change in their cognitive abilities.
• Evaluation- may not be object permanence

  Limitation= assumption that response to VOE is linked to unexpectedness and therefore object permanence. Babies response may not even be to the unexpectedness of the event. All VOE shows is that babies find certain events more interesting. We are inferring the link between this response and object permanence.

  • Actually, although the different length of time spent looking may reflect one being more interested, this may not be because the baby sees it as unexpected. It could be interesting for another reason. So VOE method is not entirely valid.
• Evaluation- universal understanding

  • All have good understanding of the basic characteristics of the physical world regardless of culture and personal experience. Eg: if we drop a key it will fall to the ground this doesn't require a past experience. This universal understanding suggests that a basic understanding of the physical world is innate. If not innate there would be significant cultural and individual differences.