Describe the visual cliff, and the results and conclusions of studies using crawling and

precrawling infants.

What will be an ideal response?

In the original visual cliff paradigm, researchers would place an infant on a table
covered with a glass top. The glass top would cover a"shallow" and "deep" side, that is,
to the person with correct depth perception, it would appear that the table "dropped"
off and that crawling over this section would result in a fall. In the original studies,
infants would crawl across the shallow side, but crawl away or cry in frustration when
parents would try to coax them over  the deep side. Originally it was believed that
infants required locomotor status in order to understand depth perception. However,
precrawling infants show unique physiological responses when placed on the deep end
of the visual cliff apparatus; for example, they display decreased heart rates, which
ordinarily signal attention and interest. Thus, it could be concluded that precrawling
infants can detect depth, yet have not come to fear it.