To cross or not to cross, that is the question.

- Inner monologue of a 9-month old infant

A Study of Visual Perception

UNRESPONSIVENESS OF MOTHER ON THE VISUAL CLIFF

OUTLINE
A. Main direction and purpose of the proposed research B. Overviews and results of Gibson and Walks (1960) Visual Cliff research on human infants C. Follow-up research conducted by Rader and Richards in relation to human infants on the Visual Cliff D. Research Design, Methodology, and Explanation

A.

NEW DIRECTION

Early research on the visual-cliff avoidance response has generally been interpreted as providing evidence for instinctual or innate depth perception (Gibson and Walk 1960). Gibson and Walk found that infants, between six and fourteen months, tend or choose to locomotion toward the visual ground or shallow side of a visual cliff apparatus, avoiding the visual cliff or deep side. Importantly, as time has elapsed, various researchers have conducted experimentations to examine determinants of avoidance on the visual cliff, with a particular focus on measurements of heart/cardiac rate, and its possible connection to fear, the influence of crawling-onset age, crawling experience and testing age. However, not as many experiments address the unresponsiveness of the infants mother on the visual cliff, and whether the lack of attention and response can be another factor for avoidance of the deep side.

A.

PURPOSE AND QUESTION

Main Question: Will 9 month old infants, who have previously shown success in crossing the deep side of the visual cliff under normal conditions, cross the deep side of the cliff if their mother is reading a magazine and thus, unresponsive and inattentive?

Main Purpose: To show that infants may have an innate sense to rely on visual perception and attention, from their mother, in ambiguous situations.

B. GIBSON & WALK (1960): THE VISUAL CLIFF

B.

BASIC OVERVIEW OF VISUAL CLIFF EXPERIMENT

Experiment conducted by Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk, with research published in 1960 in Scientific American
Common sense might suggest that the child learns to recognize falling-off places by experience that is, by falling and hurting him/herself. But is experience really the teacher? Or is it the ability to perceive and avoid a brink part of the childs original endowment (Gibson and Walk 1960).

http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=mwqZNPmxD34&featur e=related

B.

WHAT IS A VISUAL CLIFF

At Cornell University, these problems were investigated by means of an experimental set-up called a visual cliff.

What is a visual cliff?: Consisting of a board laid across a sheet of heavy glass, with a patterned material directly beneath the glass on one side and several feet below it on the other (i.e. shallow vs. deep sides). The cliff is a simulated one and makes it possible to control the optical and auditory stimuli and protect the infant subjects.

B. THE WHO, WHEN, WHAT, WHY, AND WHERE

Tested subjects: 36 infants ranging in age from 6 months to 14 months.

Method of Testing: Each child was placed upon the center board, and the mother would called him or her from the cliff side and shallow side.
Results: All of the 27 infants who moved off the board crawled out on the shallow side at least once, with only 3 of them creeping off the brink onto the glass suspended above the patterned floor. Also, many of the infants crawled away from the mother when she called to them from a cliff side.

B. GIBSON AND WALK (1960): CONCLUSIONS

The behavior of the children in this situation gave clear evidence of their dependence on vision. Often they would peer down through the glass on the deep side and then back away. Others would pat the glass with their hands, and despite this tactual assurance of solidity would refuse to cross Although this experiment does not prove that the human infants perception and avoidance of the cliff are innate, it is clear that the infants perception of had matured more rapidly then had their locomotor abilities.

B.

ALSO WORTHY OF NOTE

In Gibson and Walks (1960) experiment, the mother remains positively attentive to her child, showing welcoming signals

C. RADER & RICHARDS FOLLOW-UP RESEARCH

Rader, N., Bausano, M., & Richards, J. (1980). On the nature of the visual-cliff avoidance response in human infants. Child Development, 51, 61-68. Richards, J. & Rader, N. (1981). Crawling-onset age predicts visual cliff avoidance in infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 7, 382-387. Richards, J. and Rader, N. (1983). Affective, behavioral, and avoidance responses on the visual cliff: Effects of crawling onset age, crawling experience, and testing age. Psychophysiology, 20, 633-642.

C. AFFECTIVE, BEHAVIORAL, AND AVOIDANCE RESPONSES ON THE VISUAL CLIFF: EFFECTS OF CRAWLING ONSET AGE, CRAWLING EXPERIENCE, AND TESTING AGE

C. OVERVIEW OF THE EXPERIMENT

Nancy Rader and John Richards tested infants on two visual cliff experiments designed to determine relationships among cardiac response, avoidance and other behavioral factors and developmental factors. Experiment 1: Infants were tested at either 30 or 60 days of crawling experience following crawling onset
.

Experiment 2: infants were tested at either 9 or 12 months of age and crawling onset was recorded. Thus, crawling experience and crawling onset age were studied in Experiment 1, and testing age and crawling onset age were studied in Experiment 2

C.

GOALS OF EXPERIMENT

A. Study the relationship between behavior in the crawling and placing paradigms of the visual cliff. B. Assess how affective responses to the visual cliff, as measured by the heart rate response, were to developmental factors.
* In Experiment 1 and 2, Rader and Richards measured avoidance during the crawling procedure, heart rate responses during the placing procedure involving direct placement on the glass, and behavioral responses during crawling and placing procedures.

C. MAJOR RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

A. Crawling onset age was the single best predictor of avodiance behavior in this study. Infants who began to crawl at early ages tended to cross the visual cliff, whereas infants crawling at later ages avoided it.
B. Heart rate response was also a significant predictor of visual cliff avoidance and was found to be related to testing age, especially for late crawlers. Looking down behavior was also found to distinguish crawling avoidance and crossing the deep side of the cliff apparatus. These results suggest that fear is not the primary determinant of avodiance behavior on the visual cliff, but does contribute to avoidance at later ages.

UNRESPONSIVENESS OF MOTHER EXPERIMENTAL AND RESEARCH DESIGN

D. RECAP OF QUESTION AND PURPOSE

Main Question: Will 9 month old infants, who have previously shown success in crossing the deep side of the visual cliff under normal conditions, cross the deep side of the cliff if their mother is reading a magazine and thus, unresponsive and inattentive?

Main Purpose: To show that infants may have an innate sense to rely on visual attention, from their mother, in ambiguous situations.

D. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE (TRAINING)

Subjects: 9 month old infants (n =25, Mean = 9 months, SD = 10 to 14 days), who have previously crossed the deep end of the visual cliff under normal conditions (conducted by Gibson and Walk), and who have a crawling onset age between 190 to 210 days.

Visual Cliff: In order to best isolate for infants response to mothers lack of attention and availability, the deep end will be adjusted to a height that produces no avoidance effect (but will remain deeper than shallow end) and much referencing of the mother

D.

EXPERIMENTAL STRUCTURE

Structure: 2 experiments will be conducted

1st) Attentive Mother Experiment a) infants (9 month old, in separate trials) will be placed in center of visual cliff between deep and shallow end, 2) mother will be on end of deep side, responding and paying attention to infant 3) will infant cross or not? 2nd) Inattentive Mother Experiment a) infants (9 month old, in separate trials) will be placed in center of visual cliff between deep and shallow end, 2) once infant is placed in center of cliff, mother will be on end of deep side reading a magazine (face clearly visible, but with attention focus on reading an article) and making no visual or gaze contact with the infant 3) will infant cross or not?

D.

MOTHERS BEHAVIOR

Experiment 1: Mother will portray a welcoming mood, acting very friendly, smiling, and paying much attention to the infant, using hand movements to reach out to the infant

Experiment 2: Mother will portray neither a happy nor hostile mood, but rather, she will act inattentive and unresponsive to the infant and focus on her magazine reading, showing no forms of emotional signaling or interest.

D.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

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D.

EXPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis: Although there is an adjustment to the deep side of cliff, infants seem to have some form an innate sense of depth perception. My prediction is that the inability of the infants to visually process or perceive their mothers attention in experiment 2, will prevent the infants from crossing the deep side of the cliff. All infants in the first experiment will however, cross the deep side visual cliff. Thus, based on these results, it is my suggestion that infants may have an innate sense to utilize visual perception, from a mother, in ambiguous situations, and the inattentiveness of a mother is another example of infant avoidance on the visual cliff.

D.

PREVIOUS RELATED RESEARCH

Sorce, James F. and Emde, Robert N. (1981). Mothers presence is not enough: Effect of emotional availability on infant exploration. Developmental Psychology, 17(6), 737-745. Sorce, James F., Emde, Robert N., Campos, Joseph, & Klinnert, Mary D. (1985). Maternal emotional signaling : Its effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1years-old. Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 195-200.

D. RELATED RESEARCH SUMMARIES

Mothers Presence is Not Enough (Sorce and Emde 1981)
Assessed the role of the mother's availability in promoting infant interest and exploration. It was hypothesized that in an ambiguous situation a mother's signaling of her unavailability would inhibit her infant's exploration. 40 15-mo-old infants and their mothers were successively introduced to 4 novel/unpredictable situations. Half of these mothers read a newspaper during the stimulus presentations with their faces clearly visible but with their attention fully engaged in reading. These mothers remained unresponsive to their infants' requests for attention. Infants in the maternal reading condition exhibited less pleasure and less exploration. They stayed closer to their mothers but had a less active interest in them and made fewer bids for their attention.

D. RELATED RESEARCH SUMMARIES

Maternal Emotional Signaling (Sorce, Emde, Campos, & Klinnert 1985)
A series of four studies indicate that, by 12 months of age, human infants seek out and use such facial expressions to disambiguate situations. The deep side of a visual cliff was adjusted to a height that produced no clear avoidance and much referencing of the mother. If a mother posed joy or interest while her infant referenced, most infants crossed the deep side. If a mother posed fear or anger, very few infants crossed. If a mother posed sadness, an intermediate number crossed. In the absence of any depth whatsoever, few infants referenced the mother and those who did while the mother was posing fear hesitated but crossed nonetheless. The latter finding suggests that facial expressions regulate behavior most clearly in contexts of uncertainty.

D. OTHER DIRECTIONS FOR THIS STUDY

A. Utilization of a friendly adult with the mother present (Klinnert, Emde, Butterfield, and Campos 1986) B. Introduction of an actual fear stimulus, instead of mothers personal fearful expressions (i.e. man in gorilla costume walks by and scares mother) C. Testing a variety of infants, especially with age differences, such as 6 to 12 month old infants