Biological motion primes the animate/inanimate distinction in infancy

Given that biological motion is both detected and preferred early in life, we tested the hypothesis that biological motion might be instrumental to infants' differentiation of animate and inanimate categories. Infants were primed with either point-light displays of realistic biological motion,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-02, Vol.10 (2), p.e0116910
Main Authors: Poulin-Dubois, Diane, Crivello, Cristina, Wright, Kristyn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Animal cognition
Babies
Biological effects
Child Development - physiology
Displays
Female
Furniture
Human motion
Humans
Infant
Infants
Light
Male
Motion detection
Motion Perception - physiology
Psychology
Vehicles
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Summary:Given that biological motion is both detected and preferred early in life, we tested the hypothesis that biological motion might be instrumental to infants' differentiation of animate and inanimate categories. Infants were primed with either point-light displays of realistic biological motion, random motion, or schematic biological motion of an unfamiliar shape. After being habituated to these displays, 12-month-old infants categorized animals and vehicles as well as furniture and vehicles with the sequential touching task. The findings indicated that infants primed with point-light displays of realistic biological motion showed better categorization of animates than those exposed to random or schematic biological motion. These results suggest that human biological motion might be one of the motion cues that provide the building blocks for infants' concept of animacy.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0116910