Dr. Alimam is studying infants’ ability to distinguish shapes. He shows an infant a shape until the infant loses interest in the shape, and then he shows the infant a different shape. If the infant shows
interest in the new shape, he determines that the infant recognizes that the new shape is different from
the old one. Dr. Alimam expects that getting older will cause the babies to recognize shapes faster. He
records how long it takes the infant to show interest in the new shape.
Dr. Alimam conducts the study using a group of 5 three-month infants, 5 six-month infants, and 5 eight
month infants recruited from local day-care centers. Because he knows the directors, he does not
contact the infants' parents to inform them of the study. Below is a chart that shows the time it took for
each infant to show interest in the new shape. Dr. Alimam concludes that eight-month old infants are
better at recognizing different shapes than three-month olds or six-month olds.
AGE Infant 1 Infant 2 Infant 3 Infant 4 Infant 5
Three
Months
15 Seconds 12 Seconds 15 Seconds 20 Seconds 30 Seconds
Six
Months
10 Seconds 7 Seconds 6 Seconds 8 Seconds 10 Seconds
Eight
Months
3 Seconds 2 Seconds 5 Seconds 1 Second 3 Seconds
A. Describe how the data illustrate the habituation process.
B. Identify the mode for three-month-old infants.
C. Describe the correlation between time and an infant’s age.
D. Identify the dependent variable and independent variable.
E. Describe how Dr. Alimam could use replication to conduct a better-designed study.
F. Explain how the data support or do not support the hypothesis (causality).
G. Suppose Dr. Alimam covered the shape with a towel as the infant was exhibiting interest. Explain
what would most likely be a key difference in the way the three-month-old infants would react toward
this versus the way the eight-month-old infants would react.