unresponsiveness of mother on the visual cliff

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UNRESPONSIVENESS OF MOTHER

ON THE VISUAL CLIFF

A Study of Visual Perception

´To cross or not to cross, that is

the question.µ

- Inner monologue of a 9-month

old infant



OUTLINE

A. Main direction and purpose of the proposed research

B. Overviews and results of Gibson and Walk·s (1960)´Visual Cliffµ research on human infants

C. Follow-up research conducted by Rader and Richards

in relation to human infants on the ´Visual Cliffµ

D. Research Design, Methodology, and Explanation



A. NEW DIRECTION

Early research on the visual-cliff avoidance response has generallybeen interpreted as providing evidence for instinctual or innatedepth perception (Gibson and Walk 1960). Gibson and Walk foundthat infants, between six and fourteen months, tend or choose to

locomotion toward the ´visual groundµ or shallow side of a visual cliff apparatus, avoiding the ´visual cliffµ or deep side. Importantly, astime has elapsed, various researchers have conductedexperimentations to examine determinants of avoidance on thevisual 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 theinfant·s mother on the visual cliff, and whether the lack of attentionand response can be another factor for avoidance of the ´deepside.µ



A. PURPOSE AND QUESTION

Main Question: Will 9 month old infants, who havepreviously shown success in crossing the ´deep sideµ of the visual cliff under normal conditions, cross the ´deep

sideµ of the cliff if their mother is reading a magazineand thus, unresponsive and inattentive?

Main Purpose: To show that infants may have an innatesense to rely on visual perception and attention, fromtheir mother, in ambiguous situations.



B. GIBSON & WALK (1960): THE ³VISUAL

CLIFF´



B. B ASIC OVERVIEW OF ³VISUAL

CLIFF´ EXPERIMENT

Experiment conducted byEleanor J. Gibson andRichard D. Walk, with

research published in 1960in Scientific American

´Common sense might suggest that thechild learns to recognize falling-off

places by experience ² that is, by falling and hurting him/herself. But isexperience really the teacher? Or is itthe ability to perceive and avoid a brink part of the child·s original endowmentµ(Gibson and Walk 1960).

http://www.youtube.com/wat

ch?v=mwqZNPmxD34&featur

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B. WHAT IS A ³VISUAL CLIFF´

What is a ´visual cliff?µ: Consisting of a board laid across a sheet of heavyglass, with a patterned materialdirectly beneath the glass on one sideand several feet below it on the other(i.e. ´shallowµ vs. ´deepµ sides). Thecliff is a simulated one and makes it

possible to control the optical andauditory stimuli and protect the infantsubjects.

At CornellUniversity,

theseproblems wereinvestigated bymeans of an

experimentalset-up called a

visual cliff.



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

WHERE

Tested subjects: 36 infants ranging in age from 6 months to14 months.

Method of Testing: Each child was placed upon the centerboard, 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 onthe shallow side at least once, with only 3 of them creeping off thebrink onto the glass suspended above the patterned floor. Also, manyof the infants crawled away from the mother when she called to themfrom a cliff side.



B. GIBSON AND WALK (1960):

CONCLUSIONS

The behavior of the children in this situation gave clear evidenceof their dependence on vision. Often they would peer downthrough the glass on the deep side and then back away. Otherswould pat the glass with their hands, and despite this tactualassurance of solidity would refuse to cross

Although this experiment does not prove that the human infant·s

perception and avoidance of the cliff are innate, it is clear thatthe infant·s perception of had matured more rapidly then hadtheir locomotor abilities.



B. ALSO WORTHY OF NOTE«

In Gibson and Walk·s (1960)

experiment, the mother

remains positively attentive toher child, showing welcoming

signals



C. RADER & RICHARD¶S FOLLOW-UP

RESEARCH

Rader, N., Bausano, M., & Richards, J. (1980). On the nature of thevisual-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: HumanPerception and Performance, 7, 382-387.

Richards, J. and Rader, N. (1983). Affective, behavioral, and avoidanceresponses on the visual cliff: Effects of crawling onset age, crawling experience, and testing age. Psychophysiology, 20, 633-642.



C. ³AFFECTIVE, 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 infantson two visual cliff experiments designed todetermine relationships among cardiacresponse, avoidance and other behavioralfactors and developmental factors.

Experiment 1: Infants were tested at either 30or 60 days of crawling experience following crawling onset.

Experiment 2: infants were tested at either 9 or12 months of age and crawling onset wasrecorded.

Thus, crawling experience and crawling onsetage 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 thecrawling and placing paradigms of the visual cliff.

B. Assess how affective responses to the visualcliff, as measured by the heart rate response, wereto developmental factors.

* In Experiment 1 and 2, Rader and Richards measured avoidanceduring the crawling procedure, heart rate responses during theplacing procedure involving direct placement on the glass, andbehavioral responses during crawling and placing procedures.



C. MAJOR RESULTS AND

CONCLUSIONS

A. Crawling onset age was the single best predictorof avodiance behavior in this study. Infants whobegan to crawl at early ages tended to cross the

visual cliff, whereas infants crawling at later agesavoided 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 alsofound to distinguish crawling avoidance and crossing the deepside of the cliff apparatus. These results suggest that fear is notthe primary determinant of avodiance behavior on the visual cliff,but does contribute to avoidance at later ages.



UNRESPONSIVENESS OF MOTHEREXPERIMENTAL AND RESEARCH DESIGN



D. RECAP OF QUESTION AND

PURPOSE

Main Question: Will 9 monthold infants, who have

previously shown success incrossing the ´deep sideµ of the

visual cliff under normalconditions, cross the ´deep

sideµ of the cliff if their motheris reading a magazine and

thus, unresponsive andinattentive?

Main Purpose: To showthat infants may have aninnate sense to rely onvisual attention, from

their mother, in

ambiguous situations.



D. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

(³TRAINING´)

Visual Cliff: In order to best isolate for infant·s response tomother·s lack of attention and availability, the ´deepµ end will beadjusted to a height that produces no avoidance effect (but willremain deeper than shallow end) and much referencing of the

mother

Subjects: 9 month old infants (n =25, Mean = 9 months, SD =10 to 14 days), who have previously crossed the ´deep endµ of the visual cliff under normal conditions (conducted by Gibson

and Walk), and who have a crawling onset age between 190 to

210 days.



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 sideµ, 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) onceinfant is placed in center of cliff, mother will be on end of deep side reading a magazine (face clearly visible, but withattention focus on reading an article) and making no visualor gaze contact with the infant 3) will infant cross or not?



D. MOTHER¶S BEHAVIOR

Experiment 1: Mother will

portray a welcoming mood,acting very friendly, smiling,

and paying much attention tothe infant, using hand

movements to reach out to the

infant

Experiment 2: Mother will

portray neither a happy norhostile mood, but rather, shewill act inattentive and

unresponsive to the infant andfocus on her magazine reading,showing no forms of emotional

signaling or interest.



D. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

then



D. EXPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis: Although there is an adjustment to the ´deep sideµof 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 mother·s attentionin experiment 2, will prevent the infants from crossing the´deep sideµ of the cliff. All infants in the first experiment willhowever, cross the ´deep sideµ visual cliff. Thus, based onthese results, it is my suggestion that infants may have an

innate sense to utilize visual perception, from a mother, inambiguous situations, and the inattentiveness of a mother isanother example of infant avoidance on the visual cliff.



D. PREVIOUS RELATED RESEARCH

Sorce, James F. and Emde, Robert N.(1981). Mother·s 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 :It·s effect on the visual cliff behavior of 1-

years-old. Developmental Psychology ,21(1), 195-200.



D. RELATED RESEARCH

SUMMARIES

Mother·s Presence is Not Enough (Sorce and Emde 1981)

Assessed the role of the mother's availability in promoting infantinterest and exploration. It was hypothesized that in an ambiguous

situation a mother's signaling of her unavailability would inhibit herinfant's exploration. 40 15-mo-old infants and their mothers weresuccessively introduced to 4 novel/unpredictable situations. Half of these mothers read a newspaper during the stimulus presentationswith their faces clearly visible but with their attention fully engaged inreading. These mothers remained unresponsive to their infants'

requests for attention.Infants in the maternal reading conditionexhibited less pleasure and less exploration. They stayed closer to their

mothers but had a less active interest in them and made fewer bids fortheir 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 disambiguatesituations. The deep side of a visual cliff was adjusted to a height thatproduced no clear avoidance and much referencing of the mother. If amother posed joy or interest while her infant referenced, most infantscrossed the deep side. If a mother posed fear or anger, very few infantscrossed. If a mother posed sadness, an intermediate number crossed.

In the absence of any depth whatsoever, few infants referenced themother and those who did while the mother was posing fear hesitatedbut crossed nonetheless. The latter finding suggests that facialexpressions regulate behavior most clearly in contexts of uncertainty.



D. OTHER DIRECTIONS FOR THIS

STUDY

´ A. Utilization of a friendly adult with the motherpresent (Klinnert, Emde, Butterfield, andCampos 1986)

´ B. Introduction of an actual fear stimulus,instead of mother·s personal fearful

expressions (i.e. man in gorilla costume walksby and scares mother)

´ C. Testing a variety of infants, especially withage differences, such as 6 to 12 month oldinfants

unresponsiveness of mother on the visual cliff

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