COGNITION
AND
DEVELOPMENT
Revision booklet
,COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT
BAILLARGEON’S EXPLANATIONS OF EARLY INFANT ABILITIES-
‘Capability you are born with.’
KEY STUDY- violation of expectation (VOE)
AIM- idea that infant will show surprise when witnessing an important
event.
PROCEDURE- Baillargeon and DeVos (1991) rolling carrot task. Tall or
short carrots slide across the stage and then disappear in a window it
goes past.
FINDINGS- Baillargeon and DeVos found that children as young as 3
months reacted to this unexpected event and demonstrated object
permanence. (But Piaget only found object permanence in children at
, age 8 months). Infants looked longer at the carrot, expecting it to be
visible in the window.
EXPLAINING AN INFANT’S KNOWLEDGE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD.
Baillargeon suggests that infants are primarily equipped with
mechanisms to interpret and learn from experience, calling this a
physical reasoning system (PRS). This differs from Piaget’s view because
it suggests that infants are born with innate mechanisms that give
infants a head start in life. In contrast, Piaget suggested that everything
is learned through interaction, with no innate mechanisms. Baillargeon
proposed that when infants learn to reason about novel physical
phenomenon, they first form an all-or-none concept. They later refine
this with variables that affect this concept.
AN INFANT’S KNOWLEDGE OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WORLD
Baillargeon extended her work to understanding of the psychological
world- i.e. false beliefs and a sense of fairness and morality. In both
cases, the infants are seen with having innate mechanisms that drive
this and guide the development of reasoning.
FALSE BELIEFS-
Song and Baillargeon used VOE to test false beliefs in very young
children. Infant watches 2 toys (a skunk and a doll with pigtails) they
find out that the doll is the favourite and both toys are placed in boxes.
The box with the skunk has hair coming out of it similar to that of the
dolls, however the skunk is actually in the box. Infants as young as 14
and a half months old showed more surprise of the false belief as they
expect the woman to hold this false belief that the doll is in the one
with hair coming out of it.
AND
DEVELOPMENT
Revision booklet
,COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT
BAILLARGEON’S EXPLANATIONS OF EARLY INFANT ABILITIES-
‘Capability you are born with.’
KEY STUDY- violation of expectation (VOE)
AIM- idea that infant will show surprise when witnessing an important
event.
PROCEDURE- Baillargeon and DeVos (1991) rolling carrot task. Tall or
short carrots slide across the stage and then disappear in a window it
goes past.
FINDINGS- Baillargeon and DeVos found that children as young as 3
months reacted to this unexpected event and demonstrated object
permanence. (But Piaget only found object permanence in children at
, age 8 months). Infants looked longer at the carrot, expecting it to be
visible in the window.
EXPLAINING AN INFANT’S KNOWLEDGE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD.
Baillargeon suggests that infants are primarily equipped with
mechanisms to interpret and learn from experience, calling this a
physical reasoning system (PRS). This differs from Piaget’s view because
it suggests that infants are born with innate mechanisms that give
infants a head start in life. In contrast, Piaget suggested that everything
is learned through interaction, with no innate mechanisms. Baillargeon
proposed that when infants learn to reason about novel physical
phenomenon, they first form an all-or-none concept. They later refine
this with variables that affect this concept.
AN INFANT’S KNOWLEDGE OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WORLD
Baillargeon extended her work to understanding of the psychological
world- i.e. false beliefs and a sense of fairness and morality. In both
cases, the infants are seen with having innate mechanisms that drive
this and guide the development of reasoning.
FALSE BELIEFS-
Song and Baillargeon used VOE to test false beliefs in very young
children. Infant watches 2 toys (a skunk and a doll with pigtails) they
find out that the doll is the favourite and both toys are placed in boxes.
The box with the skunk has hair coming out of it similar to that of the
dolls, however the skunk is actually in the box. Infants as young as 14
and a half months old showed more surprise of the false belief as they
expect the woman to hold this false belief that the doll is in the one
with hair coming out of it.
