Infant psychology has heavily drawn on the Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) method. In this piece, I analyse the assumptions that go into the VoE method by comparing it with other looking time measures. Reviewing key arguments in the literature, I argue that this method relies on too many questionable assumptions, that its conceptual foundations are thin, and that its findings are empirically not conclusive. Theoretical inferences based on VoE findings are thus too speculative to allow for solid progress in developmental psychology. Overall, while I appreciate that the VoE method has helped to make infant psychology a prominent field of research, I argue that it is time for infant psychology to move forward and to leave the VoE method behind.

中文翻译：

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婴儿心理学应该依赖违反预期的方法吗？不再

婴儿心理学在很大程度上借鉴了违反预期 (VoE) 方法。在这篇文章中，我通过将 VoE 方法与其他看起来时间度量进行比较来分析进入 VoE 方法的假设。回顾文献中的关键论点，我认为这种方法依赖于太多有问题的假设，它的概念基础薄弱，而且它的发现在经验上不是结论性的。因此，基于 VoE 发现的理论推论过于投机，无法在发展心理学方面取得实质性进展。总体而言，虽然我很欣赏 VoE 方法有助于使婴儿心理学成为一个突出的研究领域，但我认为现在是婴儿心理学向前发展并将 VoE 方法抛在后面的时候了。