Biological motion research investigates the visual perception of human patterns of movement by human observers. Point-light stimuli are used in these experimental studies. These are reduced visual displays in which most identifiable features of the human mover are masked. Here is how it works.
In a classic point-light display, the head and each of the major joints of the human figure have been replaced by single points of light against a black background. When placed in motion, the points trace the position of each body part in time, clearly depicting the underlying action.
Multiple studies have demonstrated that observers can easily discern the sex of the mover from the point-light display of a simple action like walking.
Thus these experiments with biological motion perception support the findings of Henley and Birdwhistell. Identifying the sex of another person from how that person moves is a common human capacity. This identification can be made reliably even from an abstracted depiction of moving dots of light!
The conclusion is inescapable — salient differences in male and female movement
must exist – despite that fact that observers have difficulty defining these clearly.
Can Laban Movement Analysis shed light on the movement factors that differentiate
men and women? Find out more in November.