Key Research: Gibson and Walk (1960)

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  • Created by: Rosa335
  • Created on: 18-06-17 09:09
Gibson and Walk - What was the aim of this study?
To see if young animals and human children were able to perceive depth innately and therefore know not to crawl or walk over a visual cliff edge.
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Gibson and Walk - What did they aim to investigate? (relating to visual cues and depth perception)
Motion parallax: something which is further away, appear to move slower if turn head from side to side. Size: Further away, smaller image made on eye's retina. Putting smaller pattern same distance away from surface would show if this was used.
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the IV in this study
Human: Whether the child was called by its mother from the cliff or the shallow side. Animal: species of animal
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the DV in this study
Human: Whether or not the child would crawl to its mother. Animal: whether they preferred shallow/deep side.
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the sample used in this study
Human: 36 infants (+ mothers), 6-14 months. Animals: Chicks, rats, lambs, kids, pigs, kittens and dogs
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Gibson and Walk - Describe the procedure used in this study
Each child was placed individually on a board in the centre of box so that child could crawl off on to deep/shallow end of cliff. Mother stood at either deep/shallow and would called the child to come to her. Animals: reared in light/dark test innate
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Gibson and Walk - How was reflection from the glass (may distort depth) controlled?
Under-lighting to reduce reflection: Rats preferred shallow side.
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Gibson and Walk - How was pattern effect controlled?
Grey surface on both sides: Rats showed no preference
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Gibson and Walk - How was patterned surface controlled?
Patterned surface same distance under glass: Rats showed no preferrence
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Gibson and Walk - How was motion parallax tested?
Place patterned material directly against glass on either side of board but smaller and more densely spaced pattern elements on cliff side used. Infant & adult rats & day-old chicks appeared used motion parallax as depth cue by preferring shallow sid
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Gibson and Walk - What did the results of motion parallax and size cues indicate?
This would indicate that motion parallax is the innate depth perception cue and image size is a learned visual cue.
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the quantitative results of the babies (human)
27/36 moved off the board: 100% of these moved across shallow side, only 11% (3/27) moved across deep side to get to mother
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the qualitative results of the babies (human)
Some infants patted glass with hands, despite this tactual assurance would refuse to cross. Many infants supported themselves on glass over deep side as they manoeuvred on board. If mother was at cliff side children often cried bc couldn't reach her.
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the conclusion for the children
 Most human infants can discriminate depth as soon as they can crawl. However, not cognitively aware of danger of cliff, if glass hadn't been there would have fell.
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the results for the chicks
Chicks less than 24 h old would never cross the deep side of the cliff
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the results for the Goat kids and Lambs
As soon as they could stand (less than 24h old), did not step on deep side. If placed on deep side refused to put feet down, if forced to, make their legs go limp (could be pushed and would stand as soon as on shallow side).
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the results for the rats
Rat appear to rely on sensitivity of whiskers to touch & perceive environments, would happily cross deep side if could feel glass. If centre board was raised so rats couldn't feel glass with whiskers on over 95% of trials would not step on deep side
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Gibson and Walk - Who showed poorest performance on cliff and why?
Turtles (24% crawled across deep side), suggest less need for depth perception in water
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the results of the kittens
On 1st day kittens could move freely (about 4 weeks old), would avoid deep side of cliff. At 27 days, dark-reared kittens had no preference for the shallow or deep side but, once exposed to light, within a week, behaved the same as 'normal' kittens.
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Gibson and Walk - Outline the conclusions for animals in this study
Animals able to discriminate depth by time independent locomotion
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Gibson and Walk - Evaluate this research
+: Highly controlled and standardised -> easier to replicate, prompts further research Weaknesses: Findings in animals cannot be generalised to humans, low ecological validity
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Card 2

Front

Gibson and Walk - What did they aim to investigate? (relating to visual cues and depth perception)

Back

Motion parallax: something which is further away, appear to move slower if turn head from side to side. Size: Further away, smaller image made on eye's retina. Putting smaller pattern same distance away from surface would show if this was used.

Card 3

Front

Gibson and Walk - Outline the IV in this study

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Gibson and Walk - Outline the DV in this study

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Gibson and Walk - Outline the sample used in this study

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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