Baillargeon's Explanation of Infant Abilities Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Baillargeon's Explanation of Infant Abilities Deck (9)
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1
Q

What did Baillargeon suggest?

A

Suggested that even young babies have a well-developed understanding of object permanence

2
Q

What method did Baillargeon develop?

A

The violation of expectation

3
Q

What did Baillargeon investigate?

A

Investigated infant understanding of the physical world

4
Q

Outline violation of expectation research

A

1) Control condition = object behaves as someone would expect
2) Short and tall rabbits passed behind a screen with a window
3) Both possible and impossible events were shown
4) The infants looked longer at the impossible event than in the possible condition

5
Q

What were the findings of violation of expectation research?

A

The infants looked longer at the impossible event than in the possible condition
Suggests that infants were surprised at the impossible condition, demonstrating an understanding of object permanence

6
Q

What is a strength of Baillargeon’s research?

A

More valid than Piaget
Confounding variables are controlled. e.g. child wouldn’t have lost interest because that wouldn’t explain why they looked longer at impossible events.

7
Q

What is research support for the idea that we are born with a physical reasoning system?

A

Hespos + Marle

8
Q

What did Hespos and Marle find?

A

Found that everyone knew the keys must fall to the floor when dropped.
This requires a PRS.
There are NO cultural differences, suggesting it is a universal concept which is innate.

9
Q

What is a weakness of Baillargeon’s research?

A

It is hard to judge what an infant understands.
There may be several reasons why they might find one scene more interesting than another.
Not entirely valid method.