Perception: Perceptual Development - Infant Studies Flashcards
Name 3 infant studies into perceptual development
> Gibson and Walk
Slater et al.
Campos (1970 and 1994)
Describe Gibson and Walk’s study
Gibson and walk looked into innate depth perception. They used 36 infants between 6 and 14 months. The babies were placed on a piece of plexiglass, which gave the illusion of a cliff. Babies were placed on the central platform and their mothers would call and beckon it to the deep side and then the shallow side.
What did Gibson and Walk find?
They found that only 3 of the infants crawled over to the ‘deep side’ of the fake cliff. However this seemed to be accidental. When they were called to their mothers many of the infants crawled away so that they did not cross the edge. the edge and some became upset. Many looked through the glass before crawling away.
What do Gibson and Walk’s findings suggest?
These findings suggest that neonates have innate abilities to perceive depth.
What are some of the problems with Gibson and Walk’s study?
Firstly this is in a lab environment, thus this is an artificial situation with a fake cliff, so you cannot relate this to everyday situations. Also the small sample size makes it less viable, and the fact that some of the infants were over a year old- might not suggest this is innate- they might have had past experiences (e.g. falling off a sofa).
This is also ethically questionable, putting infants through a scary situation for them seems unethical. However this does provide support for innate depth perception.
Describe Slater et al.’s findings
Slater et al. looked to see whether size constancy was an innate ability or not. Slater conditioned 2 month old infants to turn their heads whenever they saw a 30cm cube at a distance of 1 meter from them. When the response had been conditioned the cube was changed to either a) 30cm cube, 3meters away b) 90cm cube one meter away or c) 90cm cube 3 meters away.
What did Slater find?
Slater found that
