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This study investigated agent and expression intensity recognition in point-light displays depicting dancing performances. In a first session, participants danced with two different expression intensities to music, solo or in dyads. In a subsequent session, they watched point-light displays of 1-5-s duration, depicting their own, their partner's or another participant's recorded actions, and were asked to identify the agent (self vs. partner vs. stranger) and the intended expression intensity (expressive vs. inexpressive) of the performer. The results indicate that performer identity and expression intensity could be discerned reliably from displays as short as 1 s. The accuracy in judgment increased with exposure duration and, for performer identification, with higher expression intensity. Judgment accuracy in agent and expression intensity recognition tasks correlated with self-report empathy indices. Accuracy correlated also with confidence in judgment, but only in the intensity recognition task. The results are discussed in relation to perceptual and neural mechanisms underlying action and intention recognition.

This study investigated self-recognition in point-light displays depicting actions performed in synchrony with music. Participants were recorded executing three different actions (dancing, walking, and clapping) and were subsequently required to identify the agent (self versus other) from point-light displays with or without the accompanying music. Results indicate that while recognition accuracy was better than chance for all actions, it was best for the relatively complex dance actions. The presence of music did not affect accuracy, suggesting that self-recognition was based on information about personal movement kinematics rather than individual differences in synchrony between movements and music.