title: Temporal properties in masking biological motion.
abstract: The perception of biological motion using point light animation techniques was investigated in several experiments. Animations simulating walking were presented with additional masking dots. The temporal properties of the walking motion or the temporal relationship between the walking and masking motions were systematically manipulated. Results showed that (1) perception of biological motion was sensitive to even small temporal perturbation within the walker, (2) the effectiveness of a mask depended upon the temporal phase difference between the mask and point light walker, (3) relatively small temporal differences between the mask and point light walker decreased the effectiveness of the mask, and (4) these effects were not due simply to observers detecting the phase offsets in the display. Temporal properties of the motion are important in perceiving the human form in action, just as in other types of figure-ground segregation. This information may be processed by both motion and form pathways for processing biological motion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, Maryland 20686, USA. ejhiris@smcm.edu
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hiris
authors.forename: Devon
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Humphrey
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stout
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011930:Reaction Time; D013997:Time Factors