Question

can you please explain the Violation-of-Expectation Method?

Answer 1

The understanding that an object exists even when it is not seen, touched or heard is called Object Permanence. The investigation of Object Permanence in infants is called Violation-of-Expectation Method which was introduced by Baillargeon, Spelke & Wasserman in 1985.

Violation-of-Expectation Method determines the understanding in infants that a solid object cannot move through a given space which has already been occupied by another solid object. To test this understanding in infants, a set-up involving a visible and occluded object is used. If infants get surprised to see a visible object pass through the space occupied by another occluded object, it suggests that infants have some pre-existing knowledge about Object Permanence.

The test is done in two parts i. e.,

• The Possible Event: Where the presence of both the objects are made visible by showing that an object can only occupy space up to where the other object takes space.
• The Impossible Event: Where one object is shown to pass through another object without having a clue of the space taken by the other object.

The Test was primarily done using a Wooden Box and a Cardboard. In the second event, the Box was taken away from behind when the Cardboard overlapped the box so that the Cardboard can be shown to move past the Box.