Babies on the Brink 

I hope they release the babies back into the wild when they're done.

"what do you do for a living?" i guide toddlers off of cliffs.

My favourite part about these studies is reading the all the comments that confidently discard the conclusion the researcher reached after decades of dedicated work in favour of their own explanation they thought up in 2 minutes.

I love watching the baby decide when it's time to go down backwards.

That's my niece! The one in the purple! She does that shoulder shrug "I don't know" move ALL the time!! YAY!

_*everyone in the comments saying the test is flawed_ *_Vsauce music plays_* "But who is the *real* baby here?"

Fascinated by the part when they're able to judge the height when they crawl, but fail to notice the same when they start walking. 4:04

what babies are learning is that their mom's will catch them if they step off.

This experiment confirms babies are just adorable.

This really shows just how important physical activity is in the development of babies. Babies learn concretely through doing things

Babies are not very aerodynamic

My 22 month old is careful with heights when walking or crawling, but today he just tried to ride his trike straight down the stairs. I guess riding a trike needs a whole new set of learning.

These babies are not afraid of heights They're just trying to avoid potential injury It's the difference between Being brave and not knowing your limits

*great video, but i think the test is fundamentally flawed, the baby, knows it has adult support near by, and that the adult will intervene when they're in real danger, they need to test it with a harness and an empty room

i love it. it’s not fear, it’s spatial calculation! babies are so cool

And then u learn to drink and forgot thousands of years of evolution

2:17 the baby is eating the wood cute

"You can test babies on a real cliff" Now that's an idea I can get behind

When I jump from high place in game, I can still feel fear of death on the way down, even my character cant die from fall.

I remember this in my child psychology class in the early 1990s! Fascinating stuff! Would love to do Child Psychology again - to a higher level! Psychology in general is fascinating!

Older human brain: Push him off the cliff..

I'd like to remind commenters saying "the test is flawed, let them fall" that babies are human beings, experience pain and trauma, and have incredibly fragile bodies. It's not like you have to experience that to know it's not a desirable behavior. Smaller conclusions often lead to bigger ones.

My nephew straight up walked into the swimming pool

“A baby is born with three instinctive fears: of loud noises, of falling, and of the total absence of light” (Isaac Asimov, Nightfall).

My son tried to backwards crawl down a very gradual slope we were hiking on!

Thanks for the video. I had heard of these experiments from Andy Clark's book 'Being There'. One particularly interesting fact is that babies learn the danger of cliffs and steep slopes as crawlers and then forget it when they become toddlers. Professor Andy believes what the babies learn is highly context-sensitive: They learn that, when their visual field or body position is in a certain state, then it is dangerous to move forward. When they become toddlers, both things change, and what they learn previously no longer applies. They do not learn general facts about cliffs and slopes. Professor Karen, from the video, seems to agree.

I am usually fascinated by scientific findings, but this time, I am more feeling of a that's cute study.

babies: precise decisions meaning life or death then theres me: oh yeah i think this is a meter tall, i can do this also me: oof my fookin knees

I now have a dream job. Thank you.

3:09 that baby was so smart to turn around and descend backwards!

Disclaimer: No babies were hurt in the process

This isn't a fear of heights. This is just instinct of knowing that somethings they aren't capable of. I think the real fear of heights for most people comes from knowing if you fall of of someplace high, you have a high or even definite possibility of getting hurt or dying.

Interesting to watch the videos of babies climbing out of their cribs. They definitely know what they are doing and not scared at all.

This reminds me of the movie “Baby’s day out”

3:14 that 180 degree rotation from the baby. That's clever.

My little brother had no fear of heights well into being able to walk. We have a low brick enclosure, only about 12" high, and he would practically run across it. Then he fell off one time and it was like something clicked in his brain and he was terrified to walk across it at all.

3:25 That little smile though!

I like that a bunch of people who aren't even familiar with the literature or have any background knowledge are so confident in chiming in on how this experiment is "stoopid."

The Visual Cliff, 1960 ... 🤔 ... So these babies grew up and started the whole parkour thingy

How do i get this job?

Genius! Teach babies how to crawl and get around safely!

There's something funny about the visuals of babies traversing these weird obstacles, like the narrow path to crawl on and stuff. It reminds me of one of those doggy agility courses.

they've removed the safety glass in place of a human safety glass. How does this alter anything when the child is still aware that it's mother will catch them?

I gotta say, it's scary, interesting and somehow funny that, when a child gets up and starts walking, they'd walk right off that edge that his younger/ crawling self would know not to do.. Falling and being hurt &or watching someone else fall and get hurt would cause a fear/understanding of what a ledge can do. Hard to actually study this because you wouldn't let the first couple children crawl/walk off the ledge to teach the others in back what to expect.. Interesting study/vid though

The babies have gotten used to the woman catchin them so ofcourse they gunna walk off, they knowwww somebody is gunna catch em

I'm convinced my toddler would just walk off the edge of the world if given the opportunity.

What I'm seeing is: Practice makes perfect Building up confidence The learning experience Conquering your fear New learning experiences Learning hand eye coordination Gaining sensory motor skills Basically, just a normal learning curve. What I'm not seeing is what she means by "cruising". Sitting I know. Crawling I know. Walking I know. But what on earth is cruising?

Am I a bad person for cracking up every time a baby just casually strolls off a ledge? like I could watch that for awhile, it's very funny

These babies are gonna grow up to be terrified of chess.

I'm so glad my mom never put me in these videos where one day I have to read mean comments about what a stupid baby I was!

Seeing the babies throw depth perception out the window once they start walking is wild.

this woman just wanted an excuse to drop babies off cliffs

I can't believe the lenghts to which some people will go to play with babies.

wow, you get paid for this job. cutest job ever.

Of course the flaw in this experiment, which is also what makes it ethical, is that there is an adult poised ready to catch them. All this experiment shows is whether or not the baby has enough experience to trust their own motor skills over that of the adult. If the adult wasn't there, maybe the results of the experiment would be different and the younger crawlers/walkers wouldn't attempt some of the drops they were attempting with the adult there

I had Dr. Adolph for Developmental Psych when I was at NYU.

This is why you should allow children to play freely but not neglect them. If you let them try to crawl off a couch but instead they fall they learn a lot faster that they can't get down that way. It's ok for kids to fall. If you make a mess because you tipped over your drink you won't do it again. The same applies to falling. Except when people are there to stop the mess from happening of course, and refill their drink. There are no consequences for their action even if it's accidental meaning the child doesn't learn not to do something

Karen Adolph and her team have my whole heart

It seems like a lot of how they react is also based on how they're encouraged and that how they seem to always have a safety net so that they never actually suffer from the heights. I presume that the researchers aware of this though. Like if a baby falls off of a table at home, that will presumably develop some fear of heights because there's actual correlation and justification. I guess a lot of their studying is just about natural instinct though along with how it can be overcome by an adult (parent?) coaxing them on.

My daughter is 3 and a half. Since she was around 15 months she has been "afraid" of checkered floors. She acts as if she is going to fall "into" the floor. It has gotten little better with age. Not sure what this is all about and her Dr. Says it's nothing to worry about. But she gets terrified to the point of panic sometimes. Very odd 🤔

Maybe once a toddler learns to walk they are used to heights against and so they walk off cliffs.

Wow! So they actually had to relearn how to navigate every time they changed position. So even after learning from crawl position (stop right at the edge, turn around, and hang) they then have to relearn when they get to cruise position (to stop, crouch, hang down, etc.) and then had to relearn all over again when they began walking because it again changes the relationship between their body and their environment. (She said there were four learning curves; learn to navigate from sitting, crawling, cruising, and then walking)

But I think the problem here is that the babies know they're not alone and that their mom has her hands close and won't let them be harmed that's why they're attempting these things ,I think it'll be a very different result if they were left alone in the room ( with actual safety they're not aware of ofc)

Oh my gosh, the results are so adorable!!

They know that the adults are there to catch them and relies on it. This is stupid!

She looks very passionate about her work and "her" babies.

Now why the hell would people do a study like that and think it's about fear of heights???? I would think it's about babies learning to avoid places where they could fall....

without doing any of these tests, i could give an educated guess at every one and be right

Babies learning that you’re going to ducking catch them

I'm afraid of heights and they make me dizzy, but babies will be crawling on the edge of a skyscraper not caring

They are my Space Marines, and they shall know no fear.

Karen Adolph. What a name.

It must be evolutionary. Babies not afraid of heights logically doesn't sound like much of a surviving type.

Ah yes, Dr Adolph throwing babies off of cliffs.

sooo many people from the 1950s and 1960s are given soo much undue credit its amazing. Its only because they were fortunate enough to be written about, because a writer had a job to do, and had to find someone willing to be written about.

It occurs to me that some of the most important scientific experiments sound positively absurd out of context.

"In the rain and on a train and in a tree"

Say what? Took 25 years to find a reason why babies have the instinct to not go over? I mean, who's funding this??

This is indeed rigorous and ADORABLE as per the description.. 😍😍👶👶👶

some goats go, and then they just don't reproduce.

so what youre saying is, baby ninja warrior?

Do babies not falsely learn that they'll be safe if mothers interviene and help them down the big drops? In real life parents would shout no and pull them from a ledge so they'd truely learn to fear drops

What they're actually testing is a feedback system in the brain that has to do with the mechanism of balance in the ear and the visual cues of the eyes --It has nothing to do with learning curves in infants. The vestibular system in your ears gives a tilt cue your when head isn't upright. If your head is parallel to the ground --this mechanism is at its maximum tilt). Your brain gives your eyes signals to move in the opposite direction to "correct" your vision so you always know which way is up or down. Your eyes help your brain understand this in reverse as well. The reason why the Babies refuse to go down the cliff head first is because of that innate queasy feeling you get you're about to fall over= your brain is trying to protect itself from injury. That's why they try to climb down feet first because your brain perceives the legs as being less important than itself. Younger infants have either underdeveloped V nerves or they are unable to respond to the signals because of underdeveloped muscles and skeletal system. The walking babies will walk off the cliff because even though they saw the cliff and perceived it as dangerous, the other signal wasn't there from their ears saying that their heads are tilted - so no danger. Falling from standing or walking is the only thing that's a "learning curve" that helps them understand the cliff from visual cues. I think this is why my daughter never crawled. She went straight from being an infant to standing and walking. When she was small I used to always carry her around the house with me like she was the one walking. I guess that's why her sense of balance really developed early-she was a walking machine afterward!

Researching the pathfinding of babies

Pain teaches fear....

Next: Why do babies eat? When do they develop the fear of hunger?

more great work from the lab of doctor Adolph

If babies are indeed afraid of heights, then there is no need for us to watch over kids when they are left on the table.

“You can test babies at the edge of a real cliff”

I do believe this video shows that babies are not born with a fear of height. This would seem to me to show the learning of depth perception. The video is a great experiment. But when the second test was done their were more areas of testing and the kids would go over the edge the first time. After this they would seem to try to figure out a way to get to the other side. I think also with this test shows the babies are good at trying to figure out whats possible not the fear of falling. They seem to keep working until they get it right..For sure its an adorable video.

I want to see outtakes where they accidentally drop the kids.

the only reason for fear of height is the tiny part of the brain that screams: do a flip!

I want to see a blooper video of this, babies falling compilation!

This is really interesting to me that the infants would walk/crawl/sit/cruise right over a cliff despite their previous experiences with the cliff... It seems that at this age, they cannot generalize the danger of a cliff, but rather applies their experiences with the cliff to their specific movements...

am i the only one who was like scarred and worried all the time when they got to the edge?

She needed 25 years researching to learn babies will learn gradually to handle their environment. WOW! Now I guess I have seen everything. Next in the series: " The mathematician who spent 25 years to finally conclude 2+2=4 "

Just reminds me of people freaking out on those lcd screen bridges

I came here to see a baby go splat

Hm, I think the understanding of injury and/or death would be the milestone as to when we develop this fear, otherwise what is there to fear about heights? Unless there is a consequence (real or a paranoia), that's when we'd develop fear.

Oh come on dont fool us, this woman just wants to work with cute little babies.