Painful semantic context modulates the relationship between action words and biological movement perception

Studies have revealed a close relationship between action–word processing and the detection of point-light biological movements and that this effect can be modulated by the context of action-verb presentation. The goal of the present study was to further examine the extent to which motor representation activation plays a role in this relationship by testing the influence of painless/painful sentence understanding during a listening task. Participants judged the presence or absence of a point-light biological movement that was embedded in a scrambled mask after a congruent or incongruent action sentence was presented. The sentences varied according to the context of action-verb presentation (painful, painless). Perceptual judgments of human movements improved after a prior presentation of a congruent action sentence but only in the painless context. Thus, our findings show that pain included in a semantic context of sentence presentation can preclude the relationship between action–word understanding and point-light biological movement judgments.     

He throws like a girl (but only when he's sad): emotion affects sex-decoding of biological motion displays

Gender stereotypes have been implicated in sex-typed perceptions of facial emotion. Such interpretations were recently called into question because facial cues of emotion are confounded with sexually dimorphic facial cues. Here we examine the role of visual cues and gender stereotypes in perceptions of biological motion displays, thus overcoming the morphological confounding inherent in facial displays. In four studies, participants’ judgments revealed gender stereotyping. Observers accurately perceived emotion from biological motion displays (Study 1), and this affected sex categorizations. Angry displays were overwhelmingly judged to be men; sad displays were judged to be women (Studies 2–4). Moreover, this pattern remained strong when stimuli were equated for velocity (Study 3). We argue that these results were obtained because perceivers applied gender stereotypes of emotion to infer sex category (Study 4). Implications for both vision sciences and social psychology are discussed.     

Motion or emotion: Infants discriminate emotional biological motion based on low-level visual information

Infants’ ability to discriminate emotional facial expressions and tones of voice is well-established, yet little is known about infant discrimination of emotional body movements. Here, we asked if 10–20-month-old infants rely on high-level emotional cues or low-level motion related cues when discriminating between emotional point-light displays (PLDs). In Study 1, infants viewed 18 pairs of angry, happy, sad, or neutral PLDs. Infants looked more at angry vs. neutral, happy vs. neutral, and neutral vs. sad. Motion analyses revealed that infants preferred the PLD with more total body movement in each pairing. Study 2, in which infants viewed inverted versions of the same pairings, yielded similar findings except for sad-neutral. Study 3 directly paired all three emotional stimuli in both orientations. The angry and happy stimuli did not significantly differ in terms of total motion, but both had more motion than the sad stimuli. Infants looked more at angry vs. sad, more at happy vs. sad, and about equally to angry vs. happy in both orientations. Again, therefore, infants preferred PLDs with more total body movement. Overall, the results indicate that a low-level motion preference may drive infants’ discrimination of emotional human walking motions.     

运动空间定向判断中的方向偏差及飞行惯性

模拟客体起飞和降落运动,探讨飞行场景中不同运动位置、不同意义客体和运动方向下个体运动空间定向判断能力。结果表明：(1)对降落运动轨迹的判断正确率显著低于起飞运动;(2)无意义客体偏高轨迹的判断正确率显著小于偏低轨迹,表现出方向偏差;(3)飞行场景影响方向偏差的表现形式,当飞机降落运动时,易将偏低路径判断为与预设轨迹相同,而飞机起飞运动时,易将偏高路径判断为相同,表明降落时飞机被知觉为会向斜下方越飞越低,而起飞时飞机会向斜上方越飞越高,表现出飞行惯性。结论：运动空间定向判断受到重力表征及个体知识经验等共同影响,具有认知可渗透性。     

Evaluating motion detection to score sleep disturbance for children: A translational approach to developing a measurement system

Information obtained via direct observation of children's sleep disturbance throughout the night in their home can guide the assessment and treatment process, but watching live or via recorded video might be impractical in terms of time expenditures. In Experiment 1, we assessed the accuracy and reliability of a motion‐detection camera with human motor movements. In Experiment 2, we tested the system's generality by using it to obtain in‐home measures of sleep disturbance for three children with autism spectrum disorder and compared the accuracy to a continuous measurement system. We also measured scoring efficiency and assessed parents' acceptability of the camera. Results provide preliminary support for motion detection in measuring sleep disturbance, but further evaluation of motion detection to improve accuracy is warranted.     

Attention maintains mental extrapolation of target position: irrelevant distractors eliminate forward displacement after implied motion

Observers' judgments of the final position of a moving target are typically shifted in the direction of implied motion ("representational momentum"). The role of attention is unclear: visual attention may be necessary to maintain or halt target displacement. When attention was captured by irrelevant distractors presented during the retention interval, forward displacement after implied target motion disappeared, suggesting that attention may be necessary to maintain mental extrapolation of target motion. In a further corroborative experiment, the deployment of attention was measured after a sequence of implied motion, and faster responses were observed to stimuli appearing in the direction of motion. Thus, attention may guide the mental extrapolation of target motion. Additionally, eye movements were measured during stimulus presentation and retention interval. The results showed that forward displacement with implied motion does not depend on eye movements. Differences between implied and smooth motion are discussed with respect to recent neurophysiological findings.     

Perceived structure from optic flow: consistent versus variable mapping of 3-D Euclidean structure

In an earlier study (Börjesson & Lind, 1996), the perception of Euclidean structure from polar projected two‐frame apparent motion sequences was studied. The results showed that Euclidean structure is not perceived. However, at larger visual angles a certain consistency in the mapping between distal and perceived structure exists. The aim of the present study was to more precisely examine how this degree of consistency varies as a function of visual angle. In Experiments 1 and 2, slant judgments of simulated and real planes indicated that the degree of consistency is a positive function of visual angle. No definite sign of a Euclidean mapping could, however, be found even in the full view condition. Experiment 3 examined texture gradients and the response method used. The results showed that texture gradients did not influence the degree of consistency of the mapping between distal and judged depth and that the response method was both reliable and valid. However, texture gradients did influence the absolute values of the slant judgments. The role of Euclidean and affine mappings of distal structure is discussed and it is proposed that the perceptually important distinction is not between affine and Euclidean mapping, but rather between two types of affine mappings—consistent and variable.     

Do not interrupt me if it makes me feel something – Study of the effect of the pleasantness of interruptions on performance

IntroductionInterruptions are mostly related to negative outcomes and researchers already found that the complexity or the length of interruptions modulate their deleterious effect on performance. However, none of them investigated the effect of the pleasantness of interruptions.ObjectiveThe objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of the pleasantness on both the correct completion of the interrupting task and the time required to resume the primary task.MethodWe designed a realistic email searching primary task during which 46 participants were either not interrupted or interrupted by a simple math addition task during which a positive or a negative picture was progressively revealed. We then asked participants how pleasant they found the interrupting task and investigated the effects of perceived pleasantness both on the interrupting task and on resuming the primary task.ResultsResults showed that performance on the interrupting task was worst and the time to resume the primary task was longer when participants found the task very pleasant or very unpleasant. Performance in both tasks was the best when participants gave intermediate pleasantness judgments. The findings were independent of the valence and arousal of the pictures used to manipulate task pleasantness.ConclusionThese results are discussed in light of empirical studies assessing the deleterious effects of emotions on cognition, and practical implications are proposed.     

整体运动知觉老化的方向不同步性及其总效应

采用随机点阵范式和实验内元分析技术,首次分离水平、垂直、旋转和径向运动形式下两两对立方向的运动一致性阈值,探究整体运动知觉(GMP)老化的方向不同步性及总效应。结果发现:四种运动形式下,老年组阈值均显著高于青年组,且元分析显示两组阈值之差的效应量大于0,表明相对于青年人,老年人的GMP存在显著下降。同时,老年组向右、向下、顺时针和外扩方向的阈值显著高于其对立方向及青年组,表明老年人这些方向的GMP衰退更加严重,提示GMP的老化存在方向不同步性。