Watch Out for The Visual Cliff! Introduction:
The visual cliff was created by psychologists Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk in 1960, at the Cornell university to investigate the depth perception.
Method: The Visual cliff involves an apparent, but not an actual drop from one surface to another, the table was about four feet tall made from a piece of thick clear glass. this test was originally created to test babies ages between 6 months to 14
Walk developed the visual cliff test to use with human infants and animals. Earlier research had revealed that infants will respond to various depth cues even before they are able to crawl. The visual cliff was not only tested on human infants, it was applied to animals as well. A few of these species included rats, cats, turtles, cows, and chickens.
Findings: The
months old. Depth perception. It was created by connecting a transparent glass surface to an opaque patterned surface. The floor had the same pattern. Which apparatus creates the visual cliff illusion, while protecting the child from injury. psychologists E.J. Gibson and R.D.
researchers found that 27 of the infants crawled over to their mother on the "deep" side without any problems. A few of the infants crawled but were extremely hesitant. Some infants refused to crawl because they were confused about the perceived drop between them and their mothers. Rats do not depend upon visual cues like some of the other species tested. Their
nocturnal habits lead them to seek food largely by smell. When moving about in the dark, they respond to tactual cues from their stiff whiskers (vibrissae) located on the snout. Hooded rats tested on the visual cliff show little preference for either side of the visual cliff apparatus as long as they could feel the glass with their vibrissae. When placed upon the glass over the deep side, they move about as if there was no cliff. Behavioral scientists have learned that fear of falling, after the infant is old enough to crawl around and start getting into things.
Conclusion: Gibson and Walk concluded that although we are not born with the ability to discriminate and perceive depth, this ability manifests as soon as we are able to crawl. Humans are not born fearing heights, but rather we develop this fear sometime during the stages of infancy.