Cite as:
Fujimoto K, Yagi A, 2000, "Translational motion alters the visual perception of articulatory movements of human gait" Perception 29 ECVP Abstract Supplement

Translational motion alters the visual perception of articulatory movements of human gait

K Fujimoto, A Yagi

Actions of a living body are usually goal-oriented. For example, the goal of gait is translation. However, there are only few studies on relations between biological motions and their goals. In this research we investigated the effects of translational motion on the visual perception of human gait. Eleven observers discriminated among four types of walker defined by the combination of body orientation (left or right) and the direction of articulatory movements of limbs (forward or backward). A walker was presented in texture-defined animation, in which both a stick-figure walker and a background were made of random-dot textures. A horizontal movement of either a walker or a background produced translational motion. The main result was that discrimination of directions of articulatory movements was heavily disturbed when the direction of translational motion was incompatible with the walking direction. In other words, such incompatibility tended to produce the perception of reverse articulatory movements. This result could be due to a synergic effect of daily perceptual experiences and a smaller contribution of articulatory movements toward conveying the goal of a walker.

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ECVP 2000 Abstract Supplement (complete) size: 1258 Kb