Décalage in infants' knowledge about occlusion and containment events: Converging evidence from action tasks

Susan J. Hespos; Renée Baillargeon

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.010

Décalage in infants' knowledge about occlusion and containment events: Converging evidence from action tasks

Susan J. Hespos^*, Renée Baillargeon

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the present research, 6-month-old infants consistently searched for a tall toy behind a tall as opposed to a short occluder. However, when the same toy was hidden inside a tall or a short container, only older, 7.5-month-old infants searched for the tall toy inside the tall container. These and control results (1) confirm previous violation-of-expectation (VOE) findings of a décalage in infants' reasoning about height information in occlusion and containment events; (2) cast doubt on the suggestion that VOE tasks overestimate infants' cognitive abilities; and (3) support recent proposals that infants use their physical knowledge to guide their actions when task demands do not overwhelm their limited processing resources.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	B31-B41
Journal	Cognition
Volume	99
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.010
State	Published - Mar 2006

Keywords

Action tasks
Containment
Infants physical reasoning
Occlusion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Language and Linguistics
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Linguistics and Language
Cognitive Neuroscience

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10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.010

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title = "D{\'e}calage in infants' knowledge about occlusion and containment events: Converging evidence from action tasks",

abstract = "In the present research, 6-month-old infants consistently searched for a tall toy behind a tall as opposed to a short occluder. However, when the same toy was hidden inside a tall or a short container, only older, 7.5-month-old infants searched for the tall toy inside the tall container. These and control results (1) confirm previous violation-of-expectation (VOE) findings of a d{\'e}calage in infants' reasoning about height information in occlusion and containment events; (2) cast doubt on the suggestion that VOE tasks overestimate infants' cognitive abilities; and (3) support recent proposals that infants use their physical knowledge to guide their actions when task demands do not overwhelm their limited processing resources.",

keywords = "Action tasks, Containment, Infants physical reasoning, Occlusion",

author = "Hespos, {Susan J.} and Ren{\'e}e Baillargeon",

note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the first (HD-08124) and second (HD-21104) author. We thank Cindy Fisher for helpful suggestions; Rebecca Bloch and Laura Glaser for their help with the data collection and coding; and the parents who kindly agreed to have their infants participate in the research. ",

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T2 - Converging evidence from action tasks

AU - Hespos, Susan J.

AU - Baillargeon, Renée

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the first (HD-08124) and second (HD-21104) author. We thank Cindy Fisher for helpful suggestions; Rebecca Bloch and Laura Glaser for their help with the data collection and coding; and the parents who kindly agreed to have their infants participate in the research.

PY - 2006/3

Y1 - 2006/3

N2 - In the present research, 6-month-old infants consistently searched for a tall toy behind a tall as opposed to a short occluder. However, when the same toy was hidden inside a tall or a short container, only older, 7.5-month-old infants searched for the tall toy inside the tall container. These and control results (1) confirm previous violation-of-expectation (VOE) findings of a décalage in infants' reasoning about height information in occlusion and containment events; (2) cast doubt on the suggestion that VOE tasks overestimate infants' cognitive abilities; and (3) support recent proposals that infants use their physical knowledge to guide their actions when task demands do not overwhelm their limited processing resources.

AB - In the present research, 6-month-old infants consistently searched for a tall toy behind a tall as opposed to a short occluder. However, when the same toy was hidden inside a tall or a short container, only older, 7.5-month-old infants searched for the tall toy inside the tall container. These and control results (1) confirm previous violation-of-expectation (VOE) findings of a décalage in infants' reasoning about height information in occlusion and containment events; (2) cast doubt on the suggestion that VOE tasks overestimate infants' cognitive abilities; and (3) support recent proposals that infants use their physical knowledge to guide their actions when task demands do not overwhelm their limited processing resources.

KW - Action tasks

KW - Containment

KW - Infants physical reasoning

KW - Occlusion

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Décalage in infants' knowledge about occlusion and containment events: Converging evidence from action tasks

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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