Renee Baillargeon Background
Renee Baillargeon is a developmental psychologist whose works regarding infant cognition are highly appreciated by the scientific community. Renee was born in 1954 in Québec, Canada, in a French-Canadian family, and she is the third child. She graduated from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, obtained a First Class Honor in psychology (Baillargeon, n.d.). Further, Renee completed a Ph.D. in the same area at the University of Pennsylvania and conducted postdoctoral studies at MIT Center for Cognitive Science, Cambridge.
In 1983 Renee began to work as Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, at the Psychology Department faculty. Her professional experience is also connected to the mentioned educational unit, where she worked as a professor until 1999. She is the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology and a faculty member of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois (Gordon, 2018). Currently, Renee is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Art and Sciences. In addition, she has received various awards, including Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fyssen Prize (“Renee Baillargeon,” n.d.).
Renee Baillargeon Research Interests and Major Accomplishments in Developmental Psychology
Renee Baillargeon is known for her contribution to infant cognition understanding, which is an important and widely discussed topic in developmental psychology. She introduced the term “violation of expectation paradigm” (VOE) that exploits the fact that young children tend to observe objects they have not encountered before for a longer time (McLeod, 2018). The major of Renee’s accomplishments is the causal reasoning domains researching. They are unique frameworks, which enable infants to learn about the events occurring around them (“Renee Baillargeon,” n.d.). Each of the four domains is focused on a specific experience, which infants perceive while witnessing a phenomenon. The described process’s research implies examining what learning mechanism and explanatory frameworks allow infants to leverage their cognitive functions and gain knowledge about opportunities and threats of the surrounding. Renee’s purpose is to uncover the initial principles that guide the realizing process.
The first domain is physical reasoning, which explores the development of infants’ expectations regarding physical entities, their displacements, and possible interactions with them. It also means the acquirement of knowledge that objects exist even when they are hidden. According to Baillargeon (n.d.), “Psychological reasoning examines the development of infants’ and toddlers’ expectations about the actions of agents” (Research interests, para. 3). It implies the ability to predict the potential consequences of specific events. Sociomoral reasoning explores the development of infants’ and toddlers’ expectations regarding interactions within social groups. Baillargeon’s studies have shown young children’s ability to predict individuals’ behavior based on rationality and cognitive functions. According to Baillargeon (n.d.), “research on biological reasoning asks whether infants view animals simply as self-propelled agents or whether they attribute to the additional, potentially biological, properties” (Research interests, para. 6). This domain is based on the innards principle, which determines young children’s expectations regarding living objects. In addition, Renne contributes significantly to increasing scientists’ knowledge in other areas of developmental psychology, such as object perception exploration, categorization, object individuation, and executive-function skills.
Renee Baillargeon is a developmental psychologist whose contribution in this area is difficult to overestimate. This woman dedicated her life to causal reasoning domains researching, understanding of which is essential for investigating principles of infants’ cognitive functions developing. In addition, she conducted her studies in a broad range of related issues. To conclude, the mentioned above achievements and contributions make Renee Baillargeon worthy of note in developmental psychology.
References
Baillargeon, R. (n.d.). Renee Baillargeon. [Autobiography]. Infant cognition Laboratory. Web.
Gordon, M. (2018). Dr. Renee Baillargeon and the building blocks of science. Journey2Psychology. Web.
McLeod, S. (2018). Object permanence. SimplyPsychology. Web.
Renee Baillargeon. (n.d.) National Academy of Sciences. Web.