Human Growth and Development / Unit 3 HGD 0341 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Visual Cliff
The idea
The visual cliff, designed by Gibson and Walk in nineteen sixty, is a glass-topped table over a checkerboard that seems to drop away halfway across. Few crawling infants aged six to fourteen months would cross onto the deep side. Later work showed that locomotor experience matters: infants with more experience moving are more sensitive to depth, and new walkers avoid the drop more than experienced crawlers. Karen Adolph's research suggests infants are learning how to move safely rather than showing an innate fear of heights.
In practice
One glass table, two infants: a new crawler edging onto the glass, and an experienced walker stopping at the edge.
Where people slip
The misconception is that the visual cliff proves babies are born afraid of heights. The better reading is that avoidance grows with experience of moving, and each new way of moving has to be learned. The cliff is also used to study social referencing: an infant looks to a caregiver's face before deciding whether to cross.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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