study

• aim


  to establish whether depth perception was innate or required environmental interaction
• method


  Lab experiment using a repeated measures design

  IV - shallow or deep side of the table.

  DV - Did they crawl or not?
• Sample


  36 infants aged between 6 and 14 months

  Mothers also participated

  Chicks, turtles, rats lambs, pigs, kittens and dogs
• procedure


  Visual cliff was a glass table with a checkered board pattern directly below the glass on the shallow end, or on the floor in a deep end

  The baby was put on the centre of the wooden board

  The mother stood at either the shallow end or the deep end and called for the child
• results


  100% of infants crawled over to their mothers on the shallow side

  11% crawled over the deep side

  Goats would not move over to the deep end, and would seem anxious or stressed

  Rats would use their whiskers to navigate

  Kittens would circle when placed on the deep end
• conclusions


  Depth perception in children developed at the same time as locomotor abilities
• AO2


  useful for farmers to know that that perception developed around the same time as locomotion

  Typically farm animals can walk within 24 hours and this shows that they won’t fall from heights

  Those who worked with children can raise awareness of when they might be problems in infants who has not developed depth perception

  Can lead to therapy to develop form constancy