Information about how another person is moving through the environment is conveyed in the movements of their limbs
Advisor Information
Steven Harrison
Location
Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
6-3-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
6-3-2015 3:30 PM
Abstract
It is possible for us as individuals to know many things about another person just by seeing how that person is moving through the environment. This capacity is used commonly by physical therapists when performing visual assessments as a starting point for any functional evaluation. Research shows that a person has a sense of his or her own individual movement through the world that depends upon the way their legs are coordinated in locomotion. We are interested in finding out if an individual can use this sense, and translate it into being able to assess how another individual is moving throughout an environment. Previous research on visual perception has shown that you can perceive the identity of acquaintances purely based on their walking gait. Although it is known we can visually perceive such properties, little is known about the mechanisms of the visual perception system that make this possible. In this research we investigated the ability to visually perceive another person’s movements when those movements are seen as moving stick figures. In this research we found that the ability to perceive another person’s movements depended upon the way the seen person’s legs were coordinated in locomotion. We found that the pattern of results observed for perceiving other’s movements matched those for perceiving one’s own movements.
Information about how another person is moving through the environment is conveyed in the movements of their limbs
Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library
It is possible for us as individuals to know many things about another person just by seeing how that person is moving through the environment. This capacity is used commonly by physical therapists when performing visual assessments as a starting point for any functional evaluation. Research shows that a person has a sense of his or her own individual movement through the world that depends upon the way their legs are coordinated in locomotion. We are interested in finding out if an individual can use this sense, and translate it into being able to assess how another individual is moving throughout an environment. Previous research on visual perception has shown that you can perceive the identity of acquaintances purely based on their walking gait. Although it is known we can visually perceive such properties, little is known about the mechanisms of the visual perception system that make this possible. In this research we investigated the ability to visually perceive another person’s movements when those movements are seen as moving stick figures. In this research we found that the ability to perceive another person’s movements depended upon the way the seen person’s legs were coordinated in locomotion. We found that the pattern of results observed for perceiving other’s movements matched those for perceiving one’s own movements.