Exercise 1.10 discussed a study at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center. Researchers were interested in determining whether infants had the ability to distinguish between the actions of helping and hindering. Each infant in the study was shown two videos. One video included a figure performing a helping action and the other included a figure performing a hindering action. Infants were presented with two toys resembling the helping and hindering figures from the videos and allowed to choose one of the toys to play with. The researchers conjectured that, even at a very young age, the infants would tend to choose the helpful object.
a. How might the results of this study been biased had each infant been shown the video with the helpful figure before being shown the video with the hindering figure?
b. How could such a potential bias be eliminated?