(images of things placed in front of the other, we can see
what’s in front/behind, how close/far those things are)
Relative size
(the biggest one is usually closer- also requires
knowledge of things and how it they look). When you know something is
bigger than the other just because of its size.
TESTING DEPTH PERCEPTION
Visual Cliff Experiment
Mobile Human Babies
- Used babies aged 4-16 months old (the baby had to know how to
crawl over the table)
- A wall with a see through plank
-
The ‘cliff’, wasn’t really a cliff, there was a glass protecting the
child.
- Tried to see if they could get a baby to walk through.
- You place a baby at the middle of the table, and have mum call
on him on the shallow and the deep end.
- You want to see if the baby crosses the cliff when mum calls.

- Perform the experiment when baby can walk/crawl.
-Every of the 27 babies, crossed to mum on the safe side, only
three crossed on the cliff side.
-Only three of the babies, went towards the mother.
-For some of the others, they stopped and cried, while others
would pull away.
-Most kids would never cross at 6 months old.
- This means that babies have more experience with the world at 6
months old.
-At nine months old, you can never get any baby willing to cross
the cliff.
- So, no matter how clumsy the babies are they understand depth
By 6-7 moths, they become absolute users and have more control
of their bodies.
Mobile non-human Babies
-
At one-day old, lambs/goats know how to crawl. Lambs were happy
on the shallow side, but not at the deeper side.
-
Little goats and lambs got depth perception after a day old
-
Rats: They don’t use their vision as much, but use their sense of
touch and whiskers to guide them. As long as the rats could feel the
glass plank, that showed it was not a cliff, they’d cross to the other
side.
-
Kittens also had very good visual depth perception at 4 weeks old.
Non-mobile Human babies
-
The idea was that if it frightens you, you’d avoid the situation.
-
Recruited babies aged 2-14 months old and hooked heart rate
monitors.
-
Decreased heart rate= not scary, Increased heart rate= scary.
-
Babies from 2-5 months had a slower heart rate when placed over
the glass cliff. This means they did not understand the danger.
-
Babies over 6 months, had an increased heart rate because they
understand the danger after experience.
Nature or Nurture?
-
We are clearly not born with the indication of what depth means.
-
Data on locomotor and experience of fear predicts their response
-
Even an older baby who recently learned to crawl will show a smaller
response

-
It has to do with the experience they’ve had in the world
-
We are biologically prepared to see depth but we require experience
to understand the consequences and learn what happens.
Face Preference
-
Do babies prefer faces to other equally complex images? (Maybe)
-
Fantz (1961) experimented with infants (ages four days old to six
months old) and put them in a preference chamber and presented
them with stimuli (pairs of images)
-
Face Stimulus: regular face, scrambled face and a same head shape,


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- Fall '13
- Dr.J.M.Ostovich
- Twin