Walking perception by walking observers

Abstract

People frequently analyze the actions of other people for the purpose of action coordination. To understand whether such self-relative action perception differs from other-relative action perception, the authors had observers either compare their own walking speed with that of a point-light walker or compare the walking speeds of 2 point-light walkers. In Experiment 1, observers walked, bicycled, or stood while performing a gait-speed discrimination task. Walking observers demonstrated the poorest sensitivity to walking speed, suggesting that perception and performance of the same action alters visual-motion processes. Experiments 2-6 demonstrated that the processes used during self-relative and other-relative action perception differ significantly in their dependence on observers' previous motor experience, current motor effort, and potential for action coordination. These results suggest that the visual analysis of human motion during traditional laboratory studies can differ substantially from the visual analysis of human movement under more realistic conditions.

Kicking to Bigger Uprights: Field Goal Kicking Performance Influences Perceived Size

“…Perceived speed of point-light walkers was less precise when participants viewed the displays while walking on a treadmill compared with participants who stood still or rode a stationary bike (Jacobs and Shiffrar 2005). That is, the perceivers' own actions influenced their perceptual sensitivity to the motion of others.…”

“Self pop-out”: agency enhances self-recognition in visual search

“…conversely, our own actions and action intentions have been shown to affect our perception of the actions of others. For example, Jacobs and colleagues have shown that walking interferes with our ability to discriminate perceived walking speeds (Jacobs and shiffrar 2005). Finally, research in monkeys and in humans has shown neuronal and regional overlap in brain systems responsible for action observation and action execution, termed the "mirror neuron network" (Rizzolatti and craighero 2004).…”

A review of event perception: The first step for convergence on robotics

“…For example, biological motions, such as walking [12,27,28,29,30,31], dancing [12,32], and other motions [31] have been investigated to support this claim. Beardworth and Bukner [27] performed an experiment on the ability to recognize walking movements.…”

“…Since perceptual-motor interaction defines visual sensitivity to human movements, Jacobs and Shiffrar [30] investigated whether different motions of observers (e.g., stationary, walking or cycling observers) affects different judgments of gait speed on self-and other-relative movements. Observers were asked to judge either whether their own walking speed was faster than a point-light walker's or which one walked faster between two point-light walkers while they stood, walked, or bicycled.…”