Recognition of Animal Locomotion from Dynamic Point-Light Displays
Year: 1993
Type: article
Abstract: To date, studies of biological motion have been restricted to displays of humans filmed (or synthesised by computer) with lights attached at the major joints. Observers can readily extract meaning from such displays. There have been no studies to assess the generality of this ability by assessing observers' accuracy in identifying various animals solely on the basis of biological motion. An experiment is reported for which biological-motion displays were created from the stop-action photographs taken by Muybridge in the last century. Naive observers could reliably identify the animals involved when biological-motion displays were animated, but not when they were given static views of dot positions. Thus the ability to interpret biological motion is general and is not restricted to human movements.
Source: Perception
DOI: 10.1068/p220759
Authors: George Mather, Sophie West
Institution: University of Sussex
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2149157978