Which study concluded that depth perception is inherent in infants who begin crawling?

Which study concluded that depth perception is inherent in infants who begin crawling?

• A. Visual Cliff Study Gibson and Walk (1960) Experiment
• B. Visual Cliff Study 1980 Rader et al
• C. Newborn Infants' Preference for Attractive Faces
• D. Halo Effect

Answer: (A)

Depth perception can be used by infants to guide movement once they begin to move themselves. In the Visual Cliff study by Gibson and Walk, babies on the shallow side would cross to check, but those who had started crawling tended to avoid the side that appeared to drop off. The setup used a glass-covered platform with a checkerboard pattern on the shallow side and a drop-off illusion on the deep side. The key finding is that crawling infants show depth perception in action—avoiding the apparent cliff—whereas non-crawling infants don’t reliably do so. This links perceptual ability to motor experience, showing that as babies begin to crawl, depth cues become functional and used to navigate real environments. The other options explore different topics—face preference or social biases—so they don’t address depth perception or locomotor development in this way.

Depth perception can be used by infants to guide movement once they begin to move themselves. In the Visual Cliff study by Gibson and Walk, babies on the shallow side would cross to check, but those who had started crawling tended to avoid the side that appeared to drop off. The setup used a glass-covered platform with a checkerboard pattern on the shallow side and a drop-off illusion on the deep side. The key finding is that crawling infants show depth perception in action—avoiding the apparent cliff—whereas non-crawling infants don’t reliably do so. This links perceptual ability to motor experience, showing that as babies begin to crawl, depth cues become functional and used to navigate real environments. The other options explore different topics—face preference or social biases—so they don’t address depth perception or locomotor development in this way.