Baillargeon
Psychology: AQA A Level, topic 11.1.9
Baillargeon and Piaget
Baillargeon studied object permanence in infants. She disagreed with Piaget, believing that object permanence developed at a younger age than he stated. Her research is known by the term violation of expectation.
Object permanence
- Object permanence is the concept whereby an infant understands that an object still exists even though they no longer can see it.
- For example, if a toy is covered by a blanket, they still understand the toy exists.
Piaget and Baillargeon
- In his research Piaget stated that object permanence develops around the age of 8-12 months during his defined sensorimotor stage.
- Baillargeon did not agree with his assessment,
- She believed that the infant simply did not have the motor skills to look for the hidden objects.
- Instead, she believed it developed earlier and carried out research to prove this.
Nativist-empiricist spectrum
- Baillargeon and Piaget were also found to be on different ends of the nativist-empiricist spectrum.
- Nativism is the theory that babies are born with certain innate abilities.
- Baillargeon is a nativist as she stated that babies are born with certain expectations about objects.
Empiricism
- Empiricism is at the other end. It states that people are born a ‘blank slate’, in which their environment moulds them.
- Humans do not have innate abilities, rather they learn through experience.
Interactionism
- Interactionism is the combination of nativism and empiricism.
- Piaget was an interactionist as he said that children are born with the cognitive ability to understand the world (innate) and learn through their interactions with the world.
Baillargeon and Violation of Expectation Research
Baillargeon studied object permanence in infants. She disagreed with Piaget, believing that object permanence developed at a younger age than he stated. Her research is known by the term violation of expectation (VOE).
Piaget vs Baillargeon
- Piaget’s studies required children to physically look for hidden objects.
- Baillargeon’s studies measured how long infants looked at possible versus impossible events.
Habituation
- As infants take in visual sensory information, they will look longer at new stimuli and shorter at stimuli in which they are habituated.
- Infants become habituated (in other words they respond less) to situations in which they are familiar.
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VOE research
- VOE research begins with presenting a new stimulus to an infant.
- The time that it takes for the infant to look away is measured.
- When they look away, Baillargeon believes the infant to be habituated.
- Then, the infant is shown two new stimuli which are similar to the stimuli that they have just been habituated to.
- One of the stimuli is possible and one is impossible.
Possible and impossible events
- Possible events are defined by things that could physically happen.
- For example, a truck passing down a ramp and being stopped by a box in front of it.
- Impossible events are defined by events that are physically impossible.
- For example, a truck passing through a box to continue down a ramp would be impossible.
VOE predictions
- Baillargeon thought that if an infant had object permanence, they would stare at the impossible event for a significantly longer length of time.
Test yourself on Baillargeon
Piaget found that children in his sensorimotor stage couldn't find hidden objects, but how did Baillargeon explain this?
If a baby has been habituated to a stimulus and then is shown a new one, what did Baillargeon assume it would do?
Baillargeon's Violation of Expectation Methods