Bertenthal B I, Proffitt D R, Kramer S J
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville 22903.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1987 Nov;13(4):577-85. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.13.4.577.
Geometry informs us that there exist a large number of possible connectivity patterns consistent with a point-light display of a person walking. Yet there is only one pattern consistent with a "stick figure" representation of the human form, and that pattern is uniquely specified by those pairwise connections that remain locally rigid. In this study, sensitivity to local rigidity in biomechanical displays was investigated in 3- and 5-month-old infants. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that by 5 months of age, infants discriminate a locally rigid point-light walker display from one in which local rigidity is perturbed. In Experiment 2 we tested infants' sensitivity to the same stimuli when those stimuli were inverted. Contrary to the preceding experiment, the results revealed no evidence of discrimination. Taken together, these findings suggest that infants are sensitive to local rigidity in biomechanical displays but that this sensitivity is orientation specific. Possible mechanisms for this specificity are discussed in the context of additional constraints on the processing of biomechanical displays.
几何学告诉我们，与一个人行走的点光显示相一致的可能连接模式有很多。然而，与人体“简笔画”表示相一致的模式只有一种，并且该模式由那些保持局部刚性的成对连接唯一确定。在本研究中，对3个月和5个月大的婴儿在生物力学显示中对局部刚性的敏感性进行了研究。实验1的结果表明，到5个月大时，婴儿能够区分局部刚性的点光行走者显示与局部刚性受到干扰的显示。在实验2中，我们测试了婴儿对相同刺激倒置时的敏感性。与前一个实验相反，结果没有显示出区分的证据。综合来看，这些发现表明婴儿在生物力学显示中对局部刚性敏感，但这种敏感性是方向特异性的。在对生物力学显示处理的其他限制背景下讨论了这种特异性的可能机制。
