Life is in motion (through a chick’s eye)

Cognitive scientists, social psychologists, computer scientists, neuroscientists, ethologists and many others have all wondered how brains detect and interpret the motion of living organisms. It appears that specific cues, incorporated into our brains by natural selection, serve to signal the presen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animal cognition 2023-01, Vol.26 (1), p.129-140
Main Authors: Lemaire, Bastien S., Vallortigara, Giorgio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal cognition
Animals
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Brain
Chickens
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Cognitive science
Cues
Kinematics
Laboratories
Life Sciences
Motion detection
Motion Perception
Natural selection
Neuroscience
Psychology Research
Review
Scientists
Sensation
Triangles
Zoology
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Summary:Cognitive scientists, social psychologists, computer scientists, neuroscientists, ethologists and many others have all wondered how brains detect and interpret the motion of living organisms. It appears that specific cues, incorporated into our brains by natural selection, serve to signal the presence of living organisms. A simple geometric figure such as a triangle put in motion with specific kinematic rules can look alive, and it can even seem to have intentions and goals. In this article, we survey decades of parallel investigations on the motion cues that drive animacy perception—the sensation that something is alive—in non-human animals, especially in precocial species, such as the domestic chick, to identify inborn biological predispositions. At the same time, we highlight the relevance of these studies for an understanding of human typical and atypical cognitive development.
ISSN:1435-9448
1435-9456
1435-9456
DOI:10.1007/s10071-022-01703-8