Tremoulet Patrice D, Feldman Jacob
Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories, Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08002, USA.
Percept Psychophys. 2006 Aug;68(6):1047-58. doi: 10.3758/bf03193364.
We present three experiments investigating how spatial context influences the attribution of animacy to a moving target. Each of our displays contained a moving object (the target) that might, depending on the way it moved, convey the impression that it was alive (animate). We investigated the mechanisms underlying this attribution by manipulating the nature of the spatial context surrounding the target. In Experiment 1, the context consisted of a simple static dot (the foil), whose position relative to the target's trajectory was manipulated. With some foil positions--for example, when the foil was lying along the path traveled by the target--animacy judgments were elevated relative to control foil locations, apparently because this context supported the impression that the target was "reacting to" or was in some other way mentally influenced by the foil. In Experiment 2, contexts consisted of a static oriented rectangle (the "paddle"). On some trials, the target collided with the paddle in a way that seemed to physically account for the target's motion pattern (in the sense of having imparted momentum to it); this condition reduced animacy ratings. Experiment 3 was similar, except that the paddles themselves were in motion; again, animacy attribution was suppressed when the target's motion seemed to have been caused by a collision with the paddle. Hence, animacy attributions can be either elevated or suppressed by the nature of the environment and the target's interaction with it. Animacy attribution tracks intentionality attribution; contrary to some earlier proposals, we conclude that attributing animacy involves, and may even require, attributing to the target some minimal mental capacity sufficient to endow the target with intentionality.
我们展示了三项实验，研究空间背景如何影响对移动目标的生命感知归因。我们的每个展示都包含一个移动的物体（目标），根据其移动方式，它可能会传达出它是有生命的（有生气的）印象。我们通过操纵目标周围空间背景的性质来研究这种归因背后的机制。在实验1中，背景由一个简单的静态点（陪衬物）组成，其相对于目标轨迹的位置被操纵。在一些陪衬物位置——例如，当陪衬物位于目标所经过的路径上时——相对于对照陪衬物位置，对生命感知的判断有所提高，显然是因为这种背景支持了目标“对陪衬物做出反应”或以某种其他方式受到陪衬物心理影响的印象。在实验2中，背景由一个静态的有方向的矩形（“球拍”）组成。在一些试验中，目标与球拍碰撞的方式似乎从物理上解释了目标的运动模式（从给它赋予动量的意义上来说）；这种情况降低了对生命感知的评分。实验3与之类似，只是球拍本身在运动；同样，当目标的运动似乎是由与球拍的碰撞引起时，对生命感知的归因被抑制了。因此，对生命感知的归因可以因环境的性质以及目标与环境的相互作用而提高或抑制。对生命感知的归因跟踪意向性归因；与一些早期的提议相反，我们得出结论，赋予生命感知涉及，甚至可能需要，赋予目标某种足以使其具有意向性的最小心理能力。
