Technique to Evaluate a
Piagetian Hypothesis
MOMENA KHATOON
PYSCHOLOGY 102 | SECTION C6 (DATE: 10/29/2018)
, 1
Using the Habituation Technique to Evaluate a Piagetian Hypothesis
The purpose of this paper is to use the habituation technique in young infants to evaluate
one hypothesis derived from Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. I will compare 5-months
old in a task that involves possible and impossible outcomes. Piaget’s theory specifies the
cognitive competencies of children of this age.). 1a) Children in the sensorimotor stage
experience the world through their senses and actions –through looking, hearing, touching,
mouthing, and grasping. And as theirs begin to move more frequently, they learn to make things
happen. 1b) Object permanence is the awareness that objects continue to exist even when not
perceived. Piaget explained the absence of object permanence in young infants because they tend
to “live in the present: out of sight is out of mind”; meaning that once an object goes out of view,
it is as if the infant completely forgets about its existence. Piaget believed that object permanence
emerges when the infant is about 8 months old because infants begin exhibiting memory for
things that are hidden. Meaning that as the infant ages, he/she will begin to develop neural
networks, that allows memories to be formed and retained. If you hide a toy, the infant will
momentarily look for it. 1c) Stranger anxiety is the fear of strangers that infants commonly
display. According to Piaget, stranger anxiety can emerge around 8 months of age, they develop
schemas for familiar faces; and when they cannot assimilate the new faces into the prior
schemas, they become distressed. This can also be applied to objects and explain why both object
permanence and stranger anxiety develop at the same time because the introduction of new
objects does not match the past schema the pre-existing object concepts. 1d) McCrink and Wynn