Violation of expectation research
Violation of expectation is a research method that measures how long babies stare at an event. Babies stare longer at impossible events, revealing hidden knowledge they cannot express verbally.
Real World
Netflix uses a similar logic in user research: if viewers pause or rewind unexpectedly at a plot moment, engineers treat that surprise response as data — just as VOE uses prolonged looking to infer infant expectations.
Exam Focus
For 'evaluate' questions, link VOE's strength (no verbal response needed) directly to its limitation (looking time is an indirect, assumed measure of knowledge).
Evaluation Scaffold
A four-step framework for high-quality evaluation. Use this for 'assess', 'evaluate', and 'to what extent' questions.
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