Object Permanence in Childern

Object Permanence in Childern

Often, research articles are composed of results of new findings and past research. Experimental psychology relies heavily on the researcher's ability to further expand previous research conducted. Child psychology, in particular, is constantly building unto old research in hopes of uncovering more knowledge about children. More specifically, Baillargeon's article "Object Permanence in 3 ½- and 4 ½-Month-Old Infants" is an example of one researcher utilizing proven research from another. In this case, Baillargeon uses DeLoache's article "Rate of Habituation and Visual Memory in Infants" to unveil more ground about the understanding of object permanence in infants. DeLoache's found that infants habituate and interpret visual stimuli at different rates, fast and slow. The relationship between these two articles show that research can often help other researchers to prove their hypothesis, more clearly, research is a never ending field.

Baillargeon's article proves that some infants have object permanence as early as 3½-months. In order to test object permanence in infants, Baillargeon set up an experiment with two types of events. Recreating two types of real-life situations, an impossible and possible situation, the experimenters tested their hypothesis. These situations were designed to find out if infants understand whether objects have permanence even when they are occluded. Measuring the looking times of each infant on the events tested understanding. The experiment started by habituating the infant to the rotating screen. After habituation, they would set up one of the two events. The impossible event was a box in plain view, which slowly disappeared by the rotating screen. Then ...

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...low habituators were fussier and less alert. Lastly, Baillargeon thought it could be more than just cognitive reactions, and one should consider motivation, social, or physiological aspects. Further research is required to get the answer to this, but perhaps another child psychologist will research on the ideas of Baillargeon, just like a torch being passed on.

All said, Baillargeon proved object permanence, but she wouldn't have been able to conduct her research without knowledge of habitation rates that DeLoache proved. Not only did Baillargeon use DeLoache's article to better aid her own research, but Baillargeon also gave more explanations for the missing part in DeLoache's article. Research is valuable because it is the basis for all that we know. I doubt there will ever be a day when a person will not be able to use or build off another person's research.