Research Project 1 Object Permanence

For this project, in which you may work in groups of two to four, you will need an infant from two of the following four age groups: 4 to 8 months, 8 to 12 months, 12 to 18 months, and 18 to 24 months. In order to do the object permanence task with these two infants, you need to clear your project through the human subjects review board at your school and get a signed informed consent form from the infants’ parents. With each infant, perform each of the following three tasks and record the infants' responses:

Infant Responses:

Task Description Infant 1 Infant 2

Sex Age Sex Age

Show each infant

an interesting object

(e.g., ball

or rattle).

Then cover it with

a piece of cloth.

Note the response.

Now move the cloth

so that part of the rattle

Is exposed. Note the response.

Show the child

the rattle again.

Now move it so that it

disappears behind a screen.

Note the response.

Now do the task again,

but this time have the toy

go behind one screen and

then another one located

close by..

Note the response.

Show the infant the rattle,

then cover it with

a small box. Move the box

behind the screen.

Let the rattle remain

behind the screen, but

Bring the box back into view.

Note the response.

Questions

1. How do the younger and older infants respond in task one? Do both seem to understand that the rattle is under the cloth? When part of the rattle is exposed, does the baby exhibit surprise? Reach out for the rattle?

2. In the second task, which infants realized the rattle is behind the screen? Can either baby follow the action when the rattle is moved to a second screen?

3. How does each of the infants respond when the rattle is in the box?

When the box no longer contains a rattle, does either of the infants look behind the screen?

4. How does object permanence change as infants get older?

Do your observations agree with Piaget's findings about object permanence?

Research Project 2 Mother-Infant Language

In this project, you will examine recasting, echoing, and expanding using naturalistic observation. Go to a local shopping mall and observe a mother with an infant 18 to 24 months old. Observe them for 15 minutes. Record three instances of speech by the mother to the infant, and classify each instance as recasting, echoing, or expanding. Note on the data sheet the mother's statements and then the infant's response to each statement. Then answer the questions that follow.

DATA SHEET

Speech Response of Infant Age Sex

Statement 1

Statement 2

Statement 3

Questions

1. What types of techniques did the mother use with the infant you observed?

2. How did the infant respond to the statement made by the mother?

3. From your observations, do you think recasting, echoing, and expanding are effective techniques in aiding infants to learn language? Why or why not? What variables might have affected the quality of data you collected? Might your conclusions have been different if you had observed a different mother-infant pair? How?

Chapter 7