Active versus Passive Processing of Biological
Motion
IM Thornton, Cambridge Basic Research, Cambridge MA, USA.
RA Rensink, Depts. of Psychology and Computer Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, Canada.
M Shiffrar, Dept. of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark NJ, USA.
Perception, 31: 837-853. 2002.
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Abstract
Johansson's point-light walker figures remain one of the most powerful
and convincing examples of the role that motion can play in the perception
of form (Johansson, 1973; 1975). In the current work, we use a dual-task
paradigm to explore the role of attention in the processing of such stimuli.
In two experiments we find striking differences in the degree to which
direction discrimination performance in point-light walker displays
appears to rely on attention. Specifically, we found that performance in
displays thought to involve top-down processing, either in time (Experiment
1) or space (Experiment 2), depends to a large extent on the availability
of attention. In contrast, performance was disrupted very little by dividing
attention in displays thought to favor low-level, local computations. We
interpret these results using the active/passive motion distinction introduced
by Cavanagh (1991).
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