Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) Research

Cognition and Development – Beyond Piaget

In this course, Dr Richard O’Connor (University of Hull) explores different ideas within the field of cognitive development that go beyond the work of Jean Piaget. In the first lecture, we introduce the violation-of-expectation looking time method as a research technique which has revolutionised our understanding of infant cognition since the 1980s. In the second lecture, we look at the classic violation-of-expectation study by Baillargeon et al. (1985). In the third lecture, we evaluation this research. Next, we think about an alternative set of ideas to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development which focuses on the role of social interactions and culture. In the fifth lecture, we look at the socio-cultural theory of cognitive development proposed by Piaget’s contemporary Lev Vygotsky, focusing on the distinction between ‘elementary’ and ‘higher’ mental functions. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about some key concepts such as the ‘zone of proximal development’.

Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) Research

In this lecture, we think about the Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) looking time method, focusing in particular on: (i) how it has revolutionised our understanding of infant cognition since the 1980s; (ii) a recap of Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and a discussion around why his reliance on search tasks to measure infant cognition may be problematic; (iii) some alternative measures that can be used to investigate cognitive development, namely looking behaviour; (iv) an early study in this area by Fantz (1964); (v) the more recently developed VoE method which tests infants’ grasp of basic physical laws (e.g. solidity, gravity) by measuring how long they look at expected and unexpected events.