Hespos Susan J, Baillargeon Renée
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2710, USA.
Cognition. 2008 Apr;107(1):304-16. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2007.07.009. Epub 2007 Sep 7.
Violation-of-expectation (VOE) tasks have revealed substantial developments in young infants' knowledge about support events: by 5.5 months, infants expect an object to fall when released against but not on a surface; and by 6.5 months, infants expect an object to fall when released with 15% but not 100% of its bottom on a surface. Here we investigated whether action tasks would reveal the same developmental pattern. Consistent with VOE reports, 5.5- and 6.5-month-old infants were more likely to reach for a toy that rested on as opposed to against a surface; and 6.5- but not 5.5-month-olds were more likely to reach for a toy with 100% as opposed to 15% of its bottom on a surface. Infants at each age thus used their support knowledge to determine whether the toys were likely to be retrievable or to be attached to adjacent surfaces and hence irretrievable. These and control findings extend recent evidence that developmental patterns observed in VOE tasks also hold in action tasks, and as such provide further support for the view that VOE and action tasks tap the same physical knowledge.
违背预期（VOE）任务揭示了婴儿对支撑事件的认知有显著发展：到5.5个月大时，婴儿预期当物体靠着而非放在平面上被释放时会掉落；到6.5个月大时，婴儿预期当物体底部15%而非100%放在平面上被释放时会掉落。在此，我们研究了动作任务是否会揭示相同的发展模式。与VOE报告一致，5.5个月和6.5个月大的婴儿更有可能伸手去拿放在而非靠着平面上的玩具；6.5个月大而非5.5个月大的婴儿更有可能伸手去拿底部100%而非15%放在平面上的玩具。因此，每个年龄段的婴儿都利用他们的支撑知识来判断玩具是否有可能被拿到，还是会附着在相邻平面上从而无法拿到。这些发现以及对照实验结果扩展了最近的证据，即VOE任务中观察到的发展模式在动作任务中也成立，因此为VOE任务和动作任务利用相同物理知识这一观点提供了进一步支持。
