techniques for measuring an infants physical knowledge

The information that we have learned in lecture and assigned readings attempts to create a timeline of the cognitive development of infants throughout adolescence. What we do know is that babies continue to improve their ability to adapt to their environment through interaction with its different element (i.e. objects, people, etc.) and that there is also a possibility that some of their knowledge has existed since birth. We have also learned about the difficulties when attempting to obtain accurate information regarding the knowledge of infants. Preferential looking and habituation are two techniques currently used to test infants’ physical knowledge about their surroundings by interpreting the infants looking behaviors (looking time). As a student I have always been open to new and clever ways of obtaining information. These two techniques however, seem to elicit some skepticism from myself as well as others.

The preferential-looking technique used throughout Spelke’s visual and auditory studies is used to infer whether a baby can discriminate between an impossible and possible event or integrate different pieces of information. For instance, if infants are given a visual task (an impossible as well as a possible event according to the laws of physics) and they look longer at the event that is impossible, this information is interpreted as a demonstration that the infant notices the violation of the object according to their knowledge or competence about the physical knowledge. If then they notice this violation then it is inferred that infants must be able to understand certain physical principles such object continuity or object solidity, for example, which would make this event impossible. Thus, the baby would recognize that because of their understanding of an object’s capabilities (object continuity and solidity) the impossible event is unexpected or magical which causes the baby to look longer at that event. Although this technique appears to be able to infer important information about a babies knowledge it is also entirely possible a number of other things could have caused of an infant to look for an extended period of time at an object or event. Some other reasons an infant may have looked longer could be their interest in the elements of the event (ball, shaped objects, colors, etc.) which caused them to focus their attention more on this event. Also, the infant could be attending to something other than the two events or nothing at all perhaps just staring. Aren’t there more accurate techniques of measuring a babies understanding such as functional and structural electromagnetic imaging? I briefly remember that this idea was mentioned during the first or second lecture. I continue to wonder whether this technique has been used and if this strategy has provided researchers with a different avenue for obtaining new and accurate information.