>> ^mauz15:
>> ^jonny:
I added "social referencing" in the tags because, while it's not directly demonstrated in this video, it has been shown in experiments using the same setup.

By social referencing, you mean what? like the kids relying on nonverbal communication from their parents or....?

Exactly that. In other experiments using the same "visual cliff" setup, the mothers were instructed to show encouraging, fearful, or neutral faces to their infants when on the cliff side. Subjects would often ignore the visual clues of the "cliff" and cross anyway when mothers showed an encouraging face, and were even less likely to cross when mothers showed a fearful face rather than a neutral one.

The point was to demonstrate just how powerful social cues are in development - they can actually override instinctual sensory cues.

>> ^jonny:
Cognitive development is fascinating. Good description, since the video doesn't do much to explain the details, or show the younger infants that will cross. I added "social referencing" in the tags because, while it's not directly demonstrated in this video, it has been shown in experiments using the same setup.


By social referencing, you mean what? like the kids relying on nonverbal communication from their parents or....?