Infants' reasoning about self-propelled objects, agents, and animals

In the present research, we investigated young infants’ concepts of self-propelled object, agent, and animal through three research projects. In Chapter 2, we examined infants’ concept of self-propelled object, specifically, whether 5-month-olds expect a self-propelled object to produce changes in its parts. We found that 5-month-olds understand that a self-propelled object can use its internal energy to produce orientation and position changes but not location and appearance changes in its parts. In Chapter 3, we examined infants’ concept of agent, particularly, whether infants believe that an agent can be inert. The results indicated that 14-month-olds believe that an agent can be inert, suggesting that self-propulsion is not necessary for infants to identify an object as an agent. In Chapter 4, we asked whether infants have any quasi-biological expectations about animals. The results suggest that 7-month-olds expect the inside of an animal to be full as opposed to be hollow. Together, these results support the core-concept view which states that infants divide objects into broad, abstract categories in accordance with the causal principles in specific reasoning domains.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Di

Contributors dc:contributor

• Baillargeon, Renée
• Fisher, Cynthia L.
• Hummel, John E.
• Simons, Daniel J.
• Cimpian, Andrei

• causal reasoning
• self-propelled object
• agent
• animal
• infant

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Di Wu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/18644

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/18644