The 'Visual Cliff' Transformed: A Factoranalytic Definition of Affordances. Report 25.

The problem investigated in this study was formulated against a background of the theory of affordance as it was tested with the famous "Visual Cliff" experiment. The present study is based on the assumption that perceivers can detect transformational as well as structural invariants not only in the context of the classical "Visual Cliff" experiments but also when their basic assumptions are transformed into the social realm. On the hypothesis that structural invariants can be defined as an invariant combination of variables of significance for the perception of social structure, a series of three factor analytic studies was conducted with a sample of 611 subjects. The first study involved 214 inservice teachers and 57 high school students in Sweden; the second study involved 180 residents of the Lund-Malmo area of southern Sweden; and the third study involved 160 university and college students in Sweden. The three studies were used to: (1) reduce an initial data set in the empirical approach to the Gibsonian concept of affordance; (2) extend the search for a two-component structure; and (3) confirm the existence of invariance in the affordance structure. Despite different sets of variables, different sample subjects, and a time interval of 7 years, it was possible to infer the existence of two ecological components defining the transformed "Visual Cliff". The first specifies the nature of change (the development of worth), while the second specifies the structure that undergoes change (the visibility of developed worth). (Author/TJH)