concerning this article should be addressed to Karen E. Adolph, Department of Psychology, New York University, 4 Washington Place, Room 410, New York, NY 10003. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected].

This research was supported by National Institute of Health and Human Development Grant R37-HD33486 to Karen E. Adolph. Portions of this work were presented at the 2009 meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, Washington, DC, and the 2010 International Conference on Infant Studies, Baltimore, MD. We gratefully acknowledge Lana Karasik and the members of the NYU Infant Action Lab for help in collecting and coding the data. We thank Samira Iravani for her beautiful illustrations.

Read the full text

About

PDF

Tools

Share a link

Email
Facebook
x
LinkedIn
Reddit
Wechat

Abstract

Infants require locomotor experience to behave adaptively at a drop-off. However, different experimental paradigms (visual cliff and actual gaps and slopes) have generated conflicting findings regarding what infants learn and the specificity of their learning. An actual, adjustable drop-off apparatus was used to investigate whether learning to distinguish a step from a cliff transfers from crawling to walking. Experienced 12-month-old crawlers (n = 16) refused to crawl over risky drop-offs but novice 12-month-old walkers (n = 17) stepped repeatedly over the edge. Experienced 18-month-old walkers (n = 18) refused to walk over risky drop-offs but descended using alternative methods. These findings suggest that infants do not acquire generalized responses like fear or wariness of heights. Rather, infants learn to perceive affordances for the experienced action.

References

Adolph, K. E. (1995). Psychophysical assessment of toddlers’ ability to cope with slopes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 734–750.
10.1037/0096-1523.21.4.734
CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E. (1997). Learning in the development of infant locomotion. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 62(No. 251).
CASPubMedGoogle Scholar
Adolph, K. E. (2000). Specificity of learning: Why infants fall over a veritable cliff. Psychological Science, 11, 290–295.
10.1111/1467-9280.00258
CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., & Avolio, A. M. (2000). Walking infants adapt locomotion to changing body dimensions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 1148–1166.
10.1037/0096-1523.26.3.1148
CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., & Berger, S. E. (2006). Motor development. In D. Kuhn & R. S. Siegler (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 2. Cognition, perception, and language ( 6th ed., pp. 161–213). New York: Wiley.
Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., & Berger, S. E. (2010). Physical and motor development. In M. H. Bornstein & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental science: An advanced textbook ( 6th ed., pp. 241–302). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., Berger, S. E., & Leo, A. J. (2011). Developmental continuity? Crawling, cruising, and walking. Developmental Science, 14, 306–318.
10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00981.x
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., Karasik, L. B., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2010). Using social information to guide action: Infants’ locomotion over slippery slopes. Neural Networks, 23, 1033–1042.
10.1016/j.neunet.2010.08.012
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., Komati, M., Cole, W. G., Garciaguirre, J. S., Badaly, D., Lingeman, J. L., et al. (in press). How do you learn to walk? Thousands of steps and dozens of falls per day. Psychological Science.
Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., & Kretch, K. S. (2012). Infants on the edge: Beyond the visual cliff. In A. Slater & P. Quinn (Eds.), Developmental psychology: Revisiting the classic studies (pp. 36–55). London: Sage.
Google Scholar
Adolph, K. E., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Ishak, S., Karasik, L. B., & Lobo, S. A. (2008). Locomotor experience and use of social information are posture specific. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1705–1714.
10.1037/a0013852
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Bee, H., & Boyd, D. (2010). The developing child ( 12th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Google Scholar
Berk, L. E. (2003). Child development ( 6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Google Scholar
Bertenthal, B. I., Campos, J. J., & Barrett, K. C. (1984). Self-produced locomotion: An organizer of emotional, cognitive, and social development in infancy. In R. N. Emde & R. J. Harmon (Eds.), Continuities and discontinuities in development (pp. 175–210). New York: Plenum.
10.1007/978-1-4613-2725-7_8
Google Scholar
Bukatko, D., & Daehler, M. W. (1998). Child development: A thematic approach ( 3rd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Google Scholar
Campos, J. J., Bertenthal, B. I., & Kermoian, R. (1992). Early experience and emotional development: The emergence of wariness of heights. Psychological Science, 3, 61–64.
10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00259.x
Web of Science®Google Scholar
Campos, J. J., Hiatt, S., Ramsay, D., Henderson, C., & Svejda, M. (1978). The emergence of fear on the visual cliff. In M. Lewis & L. Rosenblum (Eds.), The development of affect (pp. 149–182). New York: Plenum.
10.1007/978-1-4684-2616-8_6
Google Scholar
Eppler, M. A., Adolph, K. E., & Weiner, T. (1996). The developmental relationship between infants’ exploration and action on slanted surfaces. Infant Behavior & Development, 19, 259–264.
10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90025-9
Web of Science®Google Scholar
Eppler, M. A., Satterwhite, T., Wendt, J., & Bruce, K. (1997). Infants’ responses to a visual cliff and other ground surfaces. In M. A. Schmuckler & J. M. Kennedy (Eds.), Studies in perception and action IV (pp. 219–222). Mahway, NJ: Erlbaum.
Google Scholar
Franchak, J. M., van der Zalm, D. J., Hartzler, B. M., & Adolph, K. E. (2011, June). Perceiving affordances for navigating through openings. Paper presented at the International Conference on Perception and Action, Minneapolis, MN.
Google Scholar
Gibson, E. J., & Pick, A. D. (2000). An ecological approach to perceptual learning and development. New York: Oxford University Press.
10.1093/oso/9780195118254.001.0001
Google Scholar
Gibson, E. J., Riccio, G., Schmuckler, M. A., Stoffregen, T. A., Rosenberg, D., & Taormina, J. (1987). Detection of the traversability of surfaces by crawling and walking infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 13, 533–544.
10.1037/0096-1523.13.4.533
CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Gibson, E. J., & Walk, R. D. (1960). The “visual cliff. Scientific American, 202, 64–71.
10.1038/scientificamerican0460-64
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Google Scholar
Held, R., & Hein, A. (1963). Movement-produced stimulation in the development of visually guided behavior. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 56, 872–876.
10.1037/h0040546
CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Konczak, K., Meeuwson, H. J., & Cress, E. M. (1992). Changing affordances in stair climbing: The perception of maximum climbability in young and older adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 3, 691–697.
10.1037/0096-1523.18.3.691
Web of Science®Google Scholar
Mark, L. S., Balliet, J. A., Craver, K. D., Douglas, S. D., & Fox, T. (1990). What an actor must do in order to perceive the affordance for sitting. Ecological Psychology, 2, 325–366.
10.1207/s15326969eco0204_2
Google Scholar
Mondschein, E. R., Adolph, K. E., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2000). Gender bias in mothers’ expectations about infant crawling. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 77, 304–316.
10.1006/jecp.2000.2597
CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Pufall, P. B., & Dunbar, C. (1992). Perceiving whether or not the world affords stepping onto and over: A developmental study. Ecological Psychology, 4, 17–38.
10.1080/10407413.1992.10530791
Google Scholar
Regia-Corte, T., & Wagman, J. B. (2008). Perception of affordances for standing on an inclined surface depends on height of center of mass. Experimental Brain Research, 191, 25–35.
10.1007/s00221-008-1492-8
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Saarni, C., Campos, J. J., Camras, L. A., & Witherington, D. (2006). Emotional development: Action, communication, and understanding. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development ( 6th ed., pp. 226–299). New York: Wiley.
Google Scholar
Siegler, R., DeLoache, J., & Eisenberg, N. (2011). How children develop ( 3rd ed.). New York: Worth.
Google Scholar
Snapp-Childs, W., & Bingham, G. P. (2009). The affordance of barrier crossing in young children exhibits dynamic, not geometric, similarity. Experimental Brain Research, 198, 527–533.
10.1007/s00221-009-1944-9
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Sorce, J. F., Emde, R. N., Campos, J. J., & Klinnert, M. D. (1985). Maternal emotional signaling: Its effects on the visual cliff behavior of 1-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 21, 195–200.
10.1037/0012-1649.21.1.195
Web of Science®Google Scholar
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Adolph, K. E., Lobo, S. A., Karasik, L. B., & Dimitropoulou, K. A. (2008). When infants take mothers’ advice: 18-month-olds integrate perceptual and social information to guide motor action. Developmental Psychology, 44, 734–746.
10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.734
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Titzer, R. (1995, March). The developmental dynamics of understanding transparency. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN.
Google Scholar
Ueno, M., Uchiyama, I., Campos, J. J., Dahl, A., & Anderson, D. E. (2011). The organization of wariness of heights in experienced crawlers. Infancy, 17, 376–392.
10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00083.x
Web of Science®Google Scholar
Walk, R. D. (1966). The development of depth perception in animals and human infants. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 31(No. 107), 82–108.
10.2307/1165648
CASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Walk, R. D., & Gibson, E. J. (1961). A comparative and analytical study of visual depth perception. Psychological Monographs, 75(No. 519), 1–44.
10.1037/h0093827
Google Scholar
Warren, W. H. (1984). Perceiving affordances: Visual guidance of stair climbing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 10, 683–703.
10.1037/0096-1523.10.5.683
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar
Witherington, D. C., Campos, J. J., Anderson, D. I., Lejeune, L., & Seah, E. (2005). Avoidance of heights on the visual cliff in newly walking infants. Infancy, 7, 285–298.
10.1207/s15327078in0703_4
PubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar

Citing Literature

Volume84, Issue1

January/February 2013

Pages 226-240

Cliff or Step? Posture-Specific Learning at the Edge of a Drop-Off

Abstract

References

Citing Literature

References

Information

About Wiley Online Library

Help & Support

Opportunities

Connect with Wiley

Cliff or Step? Posture-Specific Learning at the Edge of a Drop-Off

Abstract

References

Citing Literature

References

Related

Information