Gibson & Walk Study

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Created by
Jess Manton

Cards (8)

  • aim

    to investigate the age at which human infants, and other animals, develop the ability to perceive depth perception, and to show depth perception is innate
  • research method
    lab experiment,
    IV: whether infant was called by mother from cliff side or shallow side of visual cliff, DV: if child crawled to mother or not
  • Sample

    36 infants, 6-14 months, parental consent gained, mothers also took part
  • procedure

    infant placed at centre of board of the visual cliff, mother called to them from cliff side and then shallow side
  • results
    • 27 infants crawled off the board, 3 crawled to cliff side, rest crawled to shallow sidemany infants crawled away from mother, some cried because they couldn't get there without crossing cliffinfants often peered down through glass on deep side then backed away, some patted glass with hands, and despite feeling it was solid, still refused to cross
  • results - animal
    • chicks who were less than 24h old made no mistakes, always hopped to shallow endat 1 day old, no goat or lab stepped onto glass of cliff siderats could feel glass with whiskers, no preference to shallow or cliff side, this changed when centre board was raised several inches so glass was out of reach, 95% went to shallow sidekittens at 4 weeks almost always chose shallow sideturtles showed poor performance, 24% crawled to cliff side (more likely because they live in water)
  • results - visual cues
    with the only cue being motion parallax to guide them (floor pattern was changed to remove relative size cue), 1 day old chicks and rats still showed strong preference for shallow side, suggesting that motion parallax is innate (nature)however when only cue was relative size (motion parallax removed, patterns of different sizes), 1 day old chicks/rats showed less preference for shallow side, meaning relative size is a learned cue (nurture)
  • conclusion

    humans and other animals develop depth perception from the time of onset mobility, suggesting that depth perception is innate, but relative size is learned