The perception of a Point Light Walker across a slit : The perception of the "human likeness"(Summary of Awarded Presentation at the 23rd Annual Meeting)

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to clarify whether the pendulum motion of a Point-Light Walker (PLW) created a perception of it's "human likeness". To quantify the amount of spatiotemporal information required to create an impression of "human likeness", the PLW was passed behind a slit which varied in width and the exposure time was also varied. Observers assessed the "human likeness" of each PLW display. The experimental results revealed that a distinct impression of "human likeness" is created when observers see more than a half cycle of the pendulum motion from the PLW for more than 410ms. These findings suggest that the pendulum motion of a PLW conveys information which is relevant to the perception of "human likeness" under certain spatial and temporal conditions.