Visual Cliff
Visual Cliff from criener on Vimeo.
From MindHacks: The researchers wanted to find out whether 6 to 14 month-old infants could perceive depth. Babies are not the best conversationalists, but they do have a natural sense of danger, so the experiment is based on the idea that the babies will avoid perceived danger, even if it's completely safe. The study put the infants, one at a time, in the middle of a table, with one side replaced by glass so you could see the 'drop'. Their mothers would try and tempt them over both sides, and if the kids had no depth perception, the glass 'drop' wouldn't seem scary and they'd just walk straight over. Those who could see the 'drop' would avoid it. Pretty much none of the infants wanted to walk across the 'visual cliff', suggesting that even kids of 6 months old could perceive depth. Children younger than that generally can't crawl though, so it makes it a bit harder finding out at what age depth perception develops.
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