UCL -PSYC0016 - Developmental = can
infants think
Piaget's sensorimotor view of infant cognition - ANS Piaget thought of sensorimotor infants are purely
'out of sight, out of mind' creatures
His conditions for symbolic thought and recall were that the infant would have to be able to consider
something not perceptually presented, but has to be 're-presented' - thought of, imagined or recalled
Kanizsa Square - ANS The spatial context of the object can specify the object to perception
Studies of infant cognition have gone through a gradual shift of methodologies: - ANS From search tasks
for absent objects To visual reactions to absent objects
A paradox exists at 3.5 months - ANS A paradox exists at 3.5 months
Representing occlusion relations in infants - ANS - Perceptual events provide an infant with conceptual
knowledge about the continued existence of objects when they are out of view
- They have a perceptual representation of objects even when they are occluded. (when tested by
methods investigating visual reactions to hidden objects)
Ballargeon, Spelke & Wasserman (1985) - ANS - Infant belief in object permanence: Violation of
Expectation Paradigm(VoE)
- Habituated 5 month of babies to a display in which a screen continually rotated through 180 degrees
towards and away from the baby. Box was placed in the path of the screen.
Possible event screen continued to rotate but stopped at object
Impossible screen continued but the object caused no obstruction
Babies in the impossible condition spent longer looking at the display when the screen passed through
the apparently solid object
, Implying that they had a representation of the object after it had been occluded from view.
Baillarageon et al 1986 - ANS - 6 ½ month old baby habituated to display in which a toy car was poised
at the top of a ramp.
- Middle section was hidden by lowering a screen, and the car ran down the ramp, passed behind the
screen and reappeared at the end of the apparatus.
- Screen was raised and box placed either on the car's track or behind it. Test then repeated
Box placed on the cars track impossible event
Box placed behind the car's track possible event
- Babies in the impossible condition spent longer staring at the apparatus than the babies in the possible
condition - they had represented the box as continuing to exist and therefore blocking the car's path,
hence they were intrigued as to the reappearance of the car.
Haith (1998) - ANS Infants may have lingering sensory information about object that have been
occluded, and this lingering sensory information yields changes in looking behaviour.
E.g. mechanisms like novelty, familiarity and discrepancy add to looking times as the infant is still
operating on actual sensory information, albeit in a degraded form Can we really call this thought
Concept can be seen as a continuum with no clear boundary - what is 'perception' and what is 'thought'
Baillargeon, 1987 - ANS Drawbridge paradigm:
6/7 month old infants able to take account of size and material of objects, but not 3 month old infants
Baillargeon, 1992 - ANS - Infants shown a box sitting at the edge of a platform, gloved hand pushed
object further toward either 85% or 30% off the edge
- Infants spent reliably longer looking at the apparatus in the 85% protrusion event than in the full-
contact control event. (babies in the 30% protrusion spent equal time looking compared to control)
Suggests that they expected the box to fall off the platform
infants think
Piaget's sensorimotor view of infant cognition - ANS Piaget thought of sensorimotor infants are purely
'out of sight, out of mind' creatures
His conditions for symbolic thought and recall were that the infant would have to be able to consider
something not perceptually presented, but has to be 're-presented' - thought of, imagined or recalled
Kanizsa Square - ANS The spatial context of the object can specify the object to perception
Studies of infant cognition have gone through a gradual shift of methodologies: - ANS From search tasks
for absent objects To visual reactions to absent objects
A paradox exists at 3.5 months - ANS A paradox exists at 3.5 months
Representing occlusion relations in infants - ANS - Perceptual events provide an infant with conceptual
knowledge about the continued existence of objects when they are out of view
- They have a perceptual representation of objects even when they are occluded. (when tested by
methods investigating visual reactions to hidden objects)
Ballargeon, Spelke & Wasserman (1985) - ANS - Infant belief in object permanence: Violation of
Expectation Paradigm(VoE)
- Habituated 5 month of babies to a display in which a screen continually rotated through 180 degrees
towards and away from the baby. Box was placed in the path of the screen.
Possible event screen continued to rotate but stopped at object
Impossible screen continued but the object caused no obstruction
Babies in the impossible condition spent longer looking at the display when the screen passed through
the apparently solid object
, Implying that they had a representation of the object after it had been occluded from view.
Baillarageon et al 1986 - ANS - 6 ½ month old baby habituated to display in which a toy car was poised
at the top of a ramp.
- Middle section was hidden by lowering a screen, and the car ran down the ramp, passed behind the
screen and reappeared at the end of the apparatus.
- Screen was raised and box placed either on the car's track or behind it. Test then repeated
Box placed on the cars track impossible event
Box placed behind the car's track possible event
- Babies in the impossible condition spent longer staring at the apparatus than the babies in the possible
condition - they had represented the box as continuing to exist and therefore blocking the car's path,
hence they were intrigued as to the reappearance of the car.
Haith (1998) - ANS Infants may have lingering sensory information about object that have been
occluded, and this lingering sensory information yields changes in looking behaviour.
E.g. mechanisms like novelty, familiarity and discrepancy add to looking times as the infant is still
operating on actual sensory information, albeit in a degraded form Can we really call this thought
Concept can be seen as a continuum with no clear boundary - what is 'perception' and what is 'thought'
Baillargeon, 1987 - ANS Drawbridge paradigm:
6/7 month old infants able to take account of size and material of objects, but not 3 month old infants
Baillargeon, 1992 - ANS - Infants shown a box sitting at the edge of a platform, gloved hand pushed
object further toward either 85% or 30% off the edge
- Infants spent reliably longer looking at the apparatus in the 85% protrusion event than in the full-
contact control event. (babies in the 30% protrusion spent equal time looking compared to control)
Suggests that they expected the box to fall off the platform
