Baillargeon’s explanation of infant abilities

👥 Baillargeon (1985) disagreed with Piaget, arguing that a child not searching for an object does not necessarily mean they lack object permanence, as other factors like limited attention could explain this.
She developed the violation of expectation method, which shows that infants look longer at unexpected events, indicating surprise and a developing understanding of physical laws.
- In her study with 24 infants aged 5–6 months, she tested object permanence using a tall and a short rabbit passing behind a screen with a window.
- In the impossible condition, the tall rabbit should have been visible but was not, and infants looked significantly longer at this outcome, suggesting they expected the rabbit to reappear.
- From this, Baillargeon concluded that infants as young as five months have object permanence.
In later research 👥 Baillargeon (2000), she explored containment (objects remain inside closed containers) and support (objects fall if unsupported but remain safe on stable surfaces).
- She proposed the concept of a physical reasoning system, an innate ability that makes infants pay attention to unexpected events to strengthen their understanding of the physical world.

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