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Gibson and Walk (1960) - Visual Cliff (Results (100% moved across shallow…
Gibson and Walk (1960) - Visual Cliff
Aim
To see if young animals and human children were able to perceive depth innately, and therefor know not to crawl or walk over a visual cliff edge
Participants
36 children aged 6-14m
Materials
Glass pane over surface that dropped halfway across producing a visual cliff that there'd be a drop
Method
Each child was placed individually on a board in the centre of thee box
Children could either crawl to the deep or shallow end of the cliff
Mother stood at either and called the child to come to her
Results
100% moved across shallow side
11% crawled across deep side
Peeped through the glass at cliff edge and back away
Some'd test glass for solidity but still didn't cross
Crawled away from mother/ sat and cried bc couldn't get mother w/o crossing deep end
Conclusions
Children perceived depth by the time they could crawl
Not aware of danger of cliff edge (as they inadvertently used the glass on the deep side for support)
By the time children can crawl they have had months interacting w environment so hard to tell if ability is innate or learned