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Updated: Aug 7, 2026
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Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
Published on: January 23, 2017
Inducing infants to detect a physical violation in a single trial
Su-hua Wang1, Renée Baillargeon
1Psychology Department, University of California-Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. suhua@ucsc.edu
Psychological Science
|July 13, 2005
Summary
Infants can learn to detect physical violations earlier than expected. Experiencing an occlusion event primes 8-month-olds to notice height discrepancies in covering events sooner.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Development
- Infant Perception
Background:
- Infants' understanding of physical events develops over time.
- Previous research shows age-related differences in encoding height information for occlusion versus covering events.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if a single laboratory experience can enhance infants' detection of physical violations.
- To determine if prior exposure to occlusion events accelerates the understanding of covering events in 8-month-olds.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted with 8-month-old infants.
- Infants observed an occlusion event where a short cover was placed before a short or tall object.
- Subsequently, a covering event occurred where the cover was lowered over a tall object, potentially hiding a violation.
Main Results:
- Infants exposed to the occlusion event demonstrated an ability to detect violations in the covering event.
- This detection occurred significantly earlier than typically observed for covering events alone.
- Exposure to other events lacking height encoding did not yield the same accelerated detection.
Conclusions:
- A single, appropriate laboratory experience can significantly enhance infants' detection of physical event violations.
- Occlusion event exposure primes infants to better process height information in subsequent covering events.
- This suggests a mechanism for accelerating cognitive development in infants through targeted experiences.
