Development of visual cliff discrimination by infant hooded rats.

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the development of visual cliff discrimination in infant hooded rats. Normal visual cliff responses were seen 2 days after eye opening, at about 16^17 days of age. These findings are in agreement with physiological experiments showing that visually evoked responses attain adult characteristics at about the same time. Normal visual cliff behavior was found to deteriorate after this age if animals could utilize tactual information. Repeated experience with the visual cliff, under conditions where tactual information can be used, has effects difficult to evaluate. Some animals tend to continue to avoid the shallow side of the cliff, while others do not. These differences seem to be related to the developmental age of the animals in a consistent manner.1 Requests for reprints may be sent to J.