Using the Habituation Technique to Evaluate a Piagetian Hypothesis
The purpose of this paper is to use the habituation technique in young infants to evaluate one hypothesis derived from Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. I will compare 5-months olds in a task that involves possible and impossible outcomes. Piaget’s theory specifies the cognitive competencies of children of this age. 1a. What infants see in the sensorimotor stage is just simple objects and shapes, and what they experience depends on their 5 senses and actions. 1b. Object permanence is the thought that just because one cannot see the object, it does not mean the object ceases to exist. Piaget would describe the lack of object permanence in infants as a brain that has not yet developed memory yet and is still fragile. After eight months, the child’s mind becomes less fragile and object permanence emerges. 1c. Stranger anxiety is when an infant memorizes familiar faces such as its parents and then reacts differently to any other unfamiliar face. According to Piaget, this emerges at around eight months as well. Infants can grasp the concept of that things come and go and can memorize what these objects look like, so whether it is a toy or parent, infants try to find what’s missing. 1d. McCrink and Wynn’s theory is that infants can do math such as addition and subtraction. This theory is against Piaget’s because McCrink’s theory says infants can do the math of taking away one doll from two will equal one while Piaget’s theory says their memories are too fragile.
Habituation is a method that might be used to explore predictions of Piaget’s theory. 2a.. Habituation is when one gets used to the same memory and their response becomes less dramatic. Dishabituation is when one reacts to the new event that breaks the loop of habituation. Researchers can study habituation in infants through the