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ERIC Number: EJ778723
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2002-Sep
Pages: 70
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0010-0285
EISSN: N/A
Developments in Young Infants' Reasoning about Occluded Objects
Aguiar, Andrea; Baillargeon, Renee
Cognitive Psychology, v45 n2 p267-336 Sep 2002
Eight experiments were conducted to examine 3- and 3.5-month-old infants' responses to occlusion events. The results revealed two developments, one in infants' knowledge of when objects should and should not be occluded and the other in infants' ability to posit additional objects to make sense of events that would otherwise violate their occlusion knowledge. The first development is that, beginning at about 3 months of age, infants expect an object to become temporarily visible when passing behind an occluder with an opening extending from its lower edge. The second development is that, beginning at about 3.5 months of age, infants generate a two-object explanation when shown a violation in which an object "fails" to become visible when passing behind an occluder with an opening in its lower edge. Unless given information contradicting such an explanation, infants infer that two identical objects are involved in the event, one traveling to the left and one to the right of the opening. These and related findings provide the basis for a model of young infants' responses to occlusion events; alternative models are also discussed. [This research was also supported by CAPES-Brasilia/Brasil.]
Elsevier. 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL 32887-4800. Tel: 877-839-7126; Tel: 407-345-4020; Fax: 407-363-1354; e-mail: usjcs@elsevier.com; Web site: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2131
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Ottawa (Ontario).; Waterloo Univ. (Ontario).; National Inst. of Child Health and Human Development (NIH), Bethesda, MD.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A