Where infants look when impossible things happen: simulating and testing a gaze-direction model

Schlesinger (2003, Adaptive Behavior, 11: 97–107) recently proposed a model of eye movements as a tool for investigating infants’ visual expectations. In the present study, this gazedirection model was evaluated by: (a) generating a set of predictions concerning how infants distribute their attention during possible and impossible events; and (b) testing these predictions in a replication of Baillargeon’s ‘car study’ (Baillargeon, 1986, Cognition, 23: 21–41, Baillargeon and DeVos, Child Development, 62: 1227–1246). We found that the model successfully predicts general features of infants’ gaze direction, but not specific differences obtained during the possible and impossible events. The implications of these results for infant cognition research and theory are