Exaggerating Temporal Differences Enhances Recognition of Individuals from Point Light Displays

Humans are very good at perceiving each other's movements. In this article, we investigate the role of time-based information in the recognition of individuals from point light biological motion sequences. We report an experiment in which we used an exaggeration technique that changes temporal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2000-05, Vol.11 (3), p.223-228
Main Authors: Hill, Harold, Pollick, Frank E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acknowledgment
Adult
Animals
Arm movements
Attention
Cues
Discrimination Learning
Exaggeration
Experimental psychology
Experimentation
Female
Humans
Individuality
Keyframes
Kinetics
Male
Mathematical constants
Mathematical sequences
Motion Perception
Movement
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Perceptual Distortion
Recognition
Sequences
Spatial perception
Time
Time Perception
Velocity distribution
Visual perception
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Summary:Humans are very good at perceiving each other's movements. In this article, we investigate the role of time-based information in the recognition of individuals from point light biological motion sequences. We report an experiment in which we used an exaggeration technique that changes temporal properties while keeping spatial information constant; differences in the durations of motion segments are exaggerated relative to average values. Participants first learned to recognize six individuals on the basis of a simple, unexaggerated arm movement. Subsequently, they recognized positively exaggerated versions of those movements better than the originals. Absolute duration did not appear to be the critical cue. The results show that time-based cues are used for the recognition of movements and that exaggerating temporal differences improves performance. The results suggest that exaggeration may reflect general principles of how diagnostic information is encoded for recognition in different domains.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1111/1467-9280.00245