Gender recognition from point-light walkers.

Abstract

Point-light displays of human gait provide information sufficient to recognize the gender of a walker and are taken as evidence of the exquisite tuning of the visual system to biological motion. The authors revisit this topic with the goals of quantifying human efficiency at gender recognition. To achieve this, the authors first derive an ideal observer for gender recognition on the basis of center of moment (J. E. Cutting, D. R. Proffitt, & L. T. Kozlowski, 1978) and, with the use of anthropometric data from various populations, show optimal recognition of approximately 79% correct. Next, they perform a meta-analysis of 21 experiments examining gender recognition, obtaining accuracies of 66% correct for a side view and 71% for other views. Finally, results of the meta-analysis and the ideal observer are combined to obtain estimates of human efficiency at gender recognition of 26% for the side view and 47% for other views.

The facing bias in biological motion perception: Effects of stimulus gender and observer sex

“…Since then, it has been reported that humans are able to extract a variety of behaviorally relevant characteristics, including the type of action (Dittrich, 1993;, the identity of the actor Loula, Prasad, Harber, & Shiffrar, 2005), and the actor's gender Pollick, Kay, Heim, & Stringer, 2005;Troje, 2002), emotional state (Dittrich, Troscianko, Lea, & Morgan, 1996;Montepare, Goldstein, & Clausen, 1987), and age (Montepare & Zebrowitz-McArthur, 1988). Only more recently, however, has the question of how observers interpret the in-depth orientation of point-light figures systematically been addressed (Jackson, Cummins, & Brady, 2008;Vanrie, Dekeyser, & Verfaillie, 2004;Vanrie & Verfaillie, 2006, 2008.…”

Compatibility of basic social perceptions determines perceived attractiveness

“…In the natural environment, however, perception of the body's shape is rarely decoupled from other body cues, which themselves may also be sexually dimorphic. The body's shape, for example, is generally perceived in motion, and body motion alone informs both basic (26)(27)(28)(29)(30) and evaluative (1,31,32) social judgments. Moreover, the perception of morphological cues as they are typically perceived (in motion) often changes perceptions.…”

Human attributes from 3D pose tracking

“…Humans reliably classify gender from point-light walkers with a hit rate (correct classification rate) of 65 to 75%; frontal views are classified best [20,25,31]. Studies have focused on cues that mediate gender classification, such as the shoulder-hip ratio [7] or the lateral sway of the upper body that is more pronounced in men [20].…”