Depth Perception, Locomotion and Social Referencing:
Depth Perception, Locomotion and Social Referencing:
Introduction
For decades, researchers have been fascinated with the way infants reach their milestones and acquire their capacity to see, manipulate objects, crawl and develop language. Although the infants ' development can be observed in their naturalistic environment, it is difficult to study their growth from a scientific perspective. The apparatus of the visual cliff that was initially created to assess young children 's ability to perceive depth has enabled scientists to create a quasi-naturalistic setting and obtain quantifiable data.
This paper offers a comprehensive look at the role of the visual cliff in the study of child development. First, the study of depth perception will be explored briefly to illustrate the underlying reason for the invention of the visual cliff. Second, the visual cliff and the original experiments will be presented. Finally, the variations of the visual cliff by researchers to study other areas of child development, which are linked to depth perception, will also be analyzed.
Depth perception of young children/infants: Binocular perception and stereopsis
Depth perception depends on two components, binocular perception and stereopsis. Binocular perception occurs when both eyes are able to work together and focus on one visual object at the same time. Because of the distance between the two eyes, the two retinas are stimulated differently, thus enabling one to assess how far one is from the object. Stereopsis involves the combination of two separate images from the eyes into one integrated image in the brain. The process of depth perception enables one to see three-dimensional images even when the retinas registers two-dimensional pictures. The transformation from two-dimensional to three-dimensional images occurs in the brain that has learned to manipulate visual images by comparing sizes, orientations, object overlaps and shadows (Berk, 1997; Siegler, 1998, p. 121).
Introduction
For decades, researchers have been fascinated with the way infants reach their milestones and acquire their capacity to see, manipulate objects, crawl and develop language. Although the infants ' development can be observed in their naturalistic environment, it is difficult to study their growth from a scientific perspective. The apparatus of the visual cliff that was initially created to assess young children 's ability to perceive depth has enabled scientists to create a quasi-naturalistic setting and obtain quantifiable data.
This paper offers a comprehensive look at the role of the visual cliff in the study of child development. First, the study of depth perception will be explored briefly to illustrate the underlying reason for the invention of the visual cliff. Second, the visual cliff and the original experiments will be presented. Finally, the variations of the visual cliff by researchers to study other areas of child development, which are linked to depth perception, will also be analyzed.
Depth perception of young children/infants: Binocular perception and stereopsis
Depth perception depends on two components, binocular perception and stereopsis. Binocular perception occurs when both eyes are able to work together and focus on one visual object at the same time. Because of the distance between the two eyes, the two retinas are stimulated differently, thus enabling one to assess how far one is from the object. Stereopsis involves the combination of two separate images from the eyes into one integrated image in the brain. The process of depth perception enables one to see three-dimensional images even when the retinas registers two-dimensional pictures. The transformation from two-dimensional to three-dimensional images occurs in the brain that has learned to manipulate visual images by comparing sizes, orientations, object overlaps and shadows (Berk, 1997; Siegler, 1998, p. 121).
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