Visual cliff

This mother is encouraging her child to crawl across the visual cliff. Despite a physical surface covering the cliff, the child hesitates to move forward.

The visual cliff is an apparatus created by psychologists Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk at Cornell University to investigate depth perception in human and other animal species. It consists of a sturdy surface that is flat but has the appearance of a several-foot drop part-way across. The visual cliff apparatus allowed them to conduct an experiment in which the optical and tactile stimuli associated with a simulated cliff were adjusted while protecting the subjects from injury.[1]

Using a visual cliff apparatus, Gibson and Walk examined possible perceptual differences at crawling age between human infants born preterm and human infants born at term without documented visual or motor impairments.[2]

  1. ^ Gibson, E.J.; Walk, R.D. (April 1960). "Visual Cliff". Scientific American. 202 (4): 64–71. Bibcode:1960SciAm.202d..64G. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0460-64. PMID 13827949.
  2. ^ Lin, Yuan-Shan; Rielly, Marie; Mercer, Vicki S. (2010). "Responses to a Modified Visual Cliff by Pre-Walking Infants Born Preterm and at Term". Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics. 30 (1): 66–78. doi:10.3109/01942630903291170. PMID 20170433. S2CID 1378458.