Baillargeon's Explanation of Infant Abilities

• What are the two types of events infants see in a typical experiment?

  Expected and unexpected events
• What does the unexpected event in the experiment violate?

  Infants' expectations examined in the experiment
• How many infants participated in Baillargeon and Graber's study?

  24 infants
• What age group did the infants in the study belong to?

  5-6 months old
• What happens in Condition 1 of the experiment?

  Short rabbit moves behind a screen and reappears
• What occurs in Condition 2 of the experiment?

  Tall rabbit moves behind a screen with a window
• How long did babies look at the possible event on average?

  25.11 seconds
• What was the average gaze duration for the impossible event?

  33.07 seconds
• What does an occlusion study test in infants?

  Understanding that one object blocks another
• What does the longer gaze time indicate about infants' reactions?

  Curiosity activated by unexpected events
• What did Baillargeon interpret from the infants' gaze duration?

  Evidence of understanding physical laws
• What are the two concepts tested in related research besides occlusion?

  Containment and support
• What does containment refer to in the context of the study?

  Object remains in a container when opened
• What does support refer to in the context of the study?

  Object on a surface won't fall if supported
• What did Baillargeon's results indicate about infants' interests?

  More interested in impossible events
• What does Baillargeon believe about the innate physical reasoning system (PRS)?

  It helps infants understand physical laws
• What is object persistence similar to?

  Object permanence
• Why does the impossible event capture infants' attention?

  It allows them to develop understanding of physics
• What are the key findings of Baillargeon and Graber's study on infants' understanding of physical laws?

  • Infants show longer gaze at impossible events
  • Indicates understanding of physical laws
  • Infants have an innate physical reasoning system (PRS)
  • PRS includes object persistence and blocking
• Who challenged Piaget’s ideas about babies’ abilities?

  Baillargeon
• What concept did Baillargeon specifically challenge in Piaget's theory?

  Object permanence
• What method did Baillargeon use to test babies' understanding of object permanence?

  Violation of expectation (VOE) trials
• What does violation of expectation research involve?

  Showing babies something unexpected
• What happens in a violation of expectation trial?

  Babies see something impossible if they understand physics
• How do researchers measure babies' surprise in VOE trials?

  By how long they look at the manipulated scene
• What are the key components of Baillargeon's research on object permanence?

  • Challenges Piaget’s ideas
  • Focuses on object permanence
  • Uses violation of expectation (VOE) trials
  • Measures babies' surprise through looking time
• What is object persistence?

  The innate, rough understanding that an object remains in existence and doesn't spontaneously change structure- different to object permanence.