A–Z Glossary

Expectation violation

A violations-of-expectation experiment studies infants' understanding by measuring whether they look longer at events that seem physically impossible.

← Back to A–Z Glossary

Search results for: Expectation violation

Handling unexpected changes and reality vs expectations

Handling unexpected changes and reality vs expectations

Why unexpected change feels so personal Birth expectations are not just preferences on paper. They often represent safety, identity, autonomy, cultural meaning, previous experiences, and hopes about becoming a parent. A person may imagine spontaneous labor, mobility, limited intervention, immediate skin-to-skin contact, or a specific support team. When events move differently, the brain registers more […]

Object Permanence and Early Thinking

Object Permanence and Early Thinking

What Object Permanence Means Object permanence refers to the understanding that an object or person continues to exist when it cannot currently be seen, heard, or touched. For an infant, this is a major shift from responding primarily to immediate sensory information toward maintaining an internal representation of something that is absent from the current […]