Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego 92093-0515, USA.
Cognition. 2013 Aug;128(2):140-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.03.013. Epub 2013 May 13.
Biological motion perception is often claimed to support social cognition, and to rely upon embodied representations and motor imagery. Are people with higher levels of social traits or more vivid motor imagery better at biological motion perception? We administered four experiments measuring sensitivity in using (global) form and (local) motion cues in biological motion, plus well-established measures of social cognition (e.g., empathy) and motor imagery (e.g., kinesthetic motor imagery). This first systematic investigation of individual variability in biological motion processing demonstrated significant relationships between these domains, along with a dissociation. Sensitivity for using form cues in biological motion processing was correlated with social (and not the imagery) measures; sensitivity for using motion cues was correlated with motor imagery (and not the social) measures. These results could not be explained by performance on non-biological control stimuli. We thus show that although both social cognition and motor imagery predict sensitivity to biological motion, these skills likely tap into different aspects of perception.
生物运动知觉通常被认为支持社会认知，并依赖于具身的表现和运动意象。那么，社会特质水平更高或运动意象更生动的人是否更擅长生物运动知觉？我们进行了四项实验，测量了在使用生物运动中的（整体）形式和（局部）运动线索时的敏感性，以及社会认知（如同理心）和运动意象（如动觉运动意象）的既定测量方法。这是首次对生物运动处理中的个体差异进行的系统研究，结果表明这些领域之间存在显著的关系，同时也存在分离。在生物运动处理中使用形式线索的敏感性与社会（而不是意象）测量相关；使用运动线索的敏感性与运动意象（而不是社会）测量相关。这些结果不能用非生物控制刺激的表现来解释。因此，我们表明，尽管社会认知和运动意象都预测了对生物运动的敏感性，但这些技能可能涉及到不同的感知方面。
