Baillargeon's explanations of infant abilities

1. There is a possibility that babies may lose interest in the object

2. Babies selective attention skills are not developed enough to stop them from being distracted

A challenge to Piaget

1. Psychologists were critical of Piaget’s conclusions, and now argue what?

2. Why does this occur?

Core Knowledge Theory

what was the theory that Baillargeon came up with?

Proposed that children are born with a physical reasoning system. One of these understandings of the world is called object persistence.

what is the Core Knowledge Theory?

the idea that children are born with an innate basic understanding of the physical world and the ability to learn more details easily.

what is a physical reasoning system?

the idea that an object remains in existence and does not alter in structure/disappear out of view

what is object persistence?

1. violation of expectation

2. a research method that uses the tendency for infants to look longer at things they do not expect/are surprised by.

3. works by showing a child a scenario which is new to them until they finally turn away

1. what method did Baillargeon use to investigate children’s understanding of the physical world?

2. What is it?

3. How does it work/ what is the methodology?

1. Argued that younger babies have better understanding of the physical world than was previously thought. Violation of expectation.

2. Showed 24 infants (aged between 5-6 months) a tall and a short rabbit pass behind a screen with a window.

3. Saw the possible condition: the tall rabbit could be seen passing the window but the short one could not.

4. Saw the impossible condition: the tall AND short rabbit cannot be seen.

5. Infants looked at the impossible event for 33 seconds, and 25 seconds in the possible condition.

6. Suggests that the infants were surprised at the impossible event so looked longer – showing an understanding for object permanence. 

Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

1. What did she argue? What did she use to investigate this?

2. What was the sample? What was the procedure?

3. What did the control condition see?

4. What did the experimental condition see?

5. What were the findings?

6. What was the conclusion?

33 seconds

how long did infants look at the impossible event for?

25 seconds

how long did the infants look at the possible condition for?