Gibson & Walk

Question 1

What is sensory processing?

Answer 1

• infants are notoriously prone to falls
• as they grow, they observe avoidance of accident: able to stand, avoid edges and objects
• possible explanations for sensory processing: innate or as a result of experience

Question 2

What is the visual cliff?

Answer 2

• glass is same level as shallow side but higher up from the ground while the shallow side was a raised platform to fit with the glass
• apparatus most commonly used for space perception, it allows for control of auditory and tactual stimuli, protects participants

Question 3

Who were the participants of the experiment?

Answer 3

• 36 infants

- 6-14 months

Question 4

What was the procedure?

Answer 4

• each child placed on centre board
• mother called them to the cliff side
• mother calls infant to shallow side

Question 5

What were the findings of the study?

Answer 5

• 27/30 infants crawled to shallow side
• only 3 crept onto the glass on the cliff side
• many infants crawled away from mother when she called them to the cliff side (cried when mother stood on cliff side)

Question 6

What were the conclusions of the study?

Answer 6

• most human infants can discriminate depth as soon as they can crawl
• they derive a sense of security that depends on visual cues
• perception of depth matured more rapidly than locomotor abilities
• it doesn’t prove that infants perception and avoidance of the cliff are innate

Question 7

What was the procedure of the experimental replication??

Answer 7

• chicks, turtles, rats, lambs, pigs, kitten, dogs
• animals placed in the centre
• direction in which they moved was tested
• goats and lambs were placed on surface that could be lowered to create a visual cliff

Question 8

What were the results of the replications?

Answer 8

• optical floor dropped led to animal freezing in defensive posture, concluded that sense of security continued to depend on visual cues for perception of depth
• exception of rats (nocturnal) who depend on smell and tactual cues from whiskers so showed little preference for shallow side
• concluded that depth perception is dependent on visual cues: develop early in life, are evolutionarily-wired, rats may differ

Question 9

What were the further replications?

Answer 9

• adjustment of depth of deep side on visual cliff: fixed patterned material to plywood sheet, moved up to look same level, lower it moved the deeper it seemed
• concern over bias in testing, Gibson and Walk (1960) tested out different patterns, different animals, different depths
• for all replications they concluded that depth perception is evolutionarily reared and independent of learning

Question 10

How did it lead to further studies on perception of affordances?

Answer 10

• Gibson re-conceptualized her studies in the 80s
• idea of affordances fit between an animal’s physical capabilities and the features of the environment allow a particular action to be performed
• Gibson focused on crawling vs walking: differences in stability of posture affect affordances of locomotion, rigidity of ground surface varied, crawling infants crossed a squishy waterbed more often than walking infants, both groups went over rigid plywood
• support for idea of fit between physical capabilities and environment

Question 11

What impact did it have on social referencing?

Answer 11

• Gibson and Walk (1987) noticed human infants only sought social information from mothers (but didn’t use visual cliff much)
• further studies use visual cliff as most famous paradigm for studying social referencing (Baldwin & Moses, 1996)
• may be that it isn’t matter of perceived danger but rather a matter of social referencing and responses from significant others that guide behaviour

Question 12

What is maternal emotional signalling?

Answer 12

• Source, Emde, Campos & Klinnert (1985): examined the role of expressions of emotion on infants’ visual cliff responses. the mothers happy or fear signalling influenced infants behaviour (when fearful no infants went to deep side)
• though other studies failed to find any effect of expressions (Bradshaw, Goldsmith & Campos (1987) and Striano, Vaish & Beningo (2006)

Question 13

What is the controversy and criticisms of the studies?

Answer 13

• human infants take months to crawl so depth perception may have been learnt
• generally small samples
• range of ages in infants
• conclusions supported by trials with other species
• didn’t examine underlining reasons for moving away from the visual cliff
• glass on deep side was conflicting tactile information
• experimental procedures conducted in lab