Perceiving bodies in motion : expression intensity, empathy, and experience

Vassilis Sevdalis, Peter E. Keller

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This study investigated the perceptual identification of individuals' intended expression intensity in point-light displays depicting dance. Participants watched point-light displays of 200-1,000-ms duration, as well as static displays, of expressive and inexpressive dance performances. The task was to identify the intended expression intensity of the performer. The results indicate that expression intensity could be discerned reliably only from dynamic displays, even when they were as short as 200 ms, though the accuracy of judgments increased with exposure duration. Judgment accuracy for dynamic displays was positively correlated with self-report empathy indices and confidence in judgments. Accuracy for these displays also correlated with indices of informal music and dance experience. The findings are discussed in relation to sensorimotor and cognitive-emotional processes underlying action understanding and social cognition.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)447-453
    Number of pages7
    JournalExperimental Brain Research
    Volume222
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Keywords

    • body language
    • dance
    • empathy
    • visual perception

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