AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -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.

Detailed explanation-2: -In order to investigate depth perception, psychologists E.J. Gibson and R.D. Walk developed the visual cliff test to use with human infants and animals.

Detailed explanation-3: -Babies as young as 2 to 3 months have shown that they have some form of depth perception. One method researchers have used to study babies and depth perception is through using a “visual cliff.” A visual cliff consists of a glass platform that is raised a few feet off the floor.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1960, researchers Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk placed crawling 6-14 month-olds (as well as baby animals) on a plexiglass surface, half of which was over a large drop-off, to see what they would do when they encountered the edge of the “cliff.” Nearly all of them peered over the edge and refused to cross over.

Detailed explanation-5: -The fame of this classic experiment, which established that infants can perceive depth by the time they learn to crawl, has overshadowed the brilliant woman behind the experiment-Eleanor J. Gibson (1910–2002). But Gibson’s life, including how she came to conduct the visual cliff experiment, is well worth remembering.