Transcript Is Piaget's search task a valid test of object permanence?

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Is Piaget’s search task a valid test
of object permanence?
You are learning about...
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You are learning to...
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage •
Studies of object
permanence by Bower and
Baillargeon
Describe and criticise ways
of investigating infant
cognition
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Today’s session
• Failure to search could imply lack of object
permanence or:
– Loss of interest
– Limited working memory
– Inability to coordinate search movements
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Search tasks
• A child might have object permanence
(competence) but still not be able to search
(performance)
– Competence = underlying ability to do something
– Performance = whether someone actually does it
• Piaget’s search task conflates (mixes up)
competence and performance, leading him to
underestimate infants’ abilities.
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Competence vs. performance
• Many researchers have adopted the child’s
looking as a measure of object permanence
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• Can you think of a more valid way of testing
for object permanence?
• 5 month-old infants’ visual tracking was
recorded as they watched a moving object
disappear behind a screen.
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Bower et al (1971)
• What would Piaget predict to happen once the
object has disappeared behind the screen?
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Bower et al (1971)
• 4 month-old infants shown a toy.
• Lights were turned off so the room was in
complete darkness. Infants were observed
with an infra-red camera.
– What would Piaget predict about the child’s
behaviour once the room was darkened?
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Bower & Wishart (1972)
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• Why might we argue that Bower’s tests of
object permanence are more valid than
Piaget’s?
• Used the habituation paradigm:
– Infants will spend more time looking at new
things.
– They are shown a stimulus until they look away
(habituation)
– They are then shown other stimuli based on the
first.
• Differences in looking time show that the
infant can tell the difference between the
stimuli
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Baillargeon (1985; 1987)
• 4 month-old infants habituated and then shown
‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ events
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Baillargeon (1985; 1987)
• 4 month-old infants habituated and then shown
‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ events
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Baillargeon (1985; 1987)
• Baillargeon found that infants would look for
longer at impossible events.
• What conclusions can be drawn from this
finding?
• What do Bower’s and Baillargeon’s results
imply about Piaget’s view of object
permanence?
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Baillargeon (1985; 1987)
• Read the article about Baillargeon’s studies
and answer the accompanying questions.
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Homework