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

Cognition. 2006 Mar;99(2):B31-41. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2005.01.010. Epub 2005 Jun 6.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Cognition*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Problem Solving
  • Reaction Time
  • Space Perception
  • Visual Perception*