[Recognition on the gender of point-light walkers moving in different directions]

When we see a series of moving lights attached to a walker's major joints, we can recognize it as a human body in motion (Bruce & Green, 1990; Johansson, 1973). Moreover, observers can recognize the walker's gender from such a display (Barclay, Cutting, & Kozlowski, 1978; Cutting & Kozlowski, 1977; Cutting, Proffitt, & Kozlowski, 1978). For gender recognition, Cutting and his colleagues suggested that male and female walkers respectively have unique walking styles caused by differences in the position of their center of moment (Cm). However, previous studies of gender recognition used only side views of these point-light walkers. The present study investigated gender recognition by presenting subjects with three kinds of views of the point-light walkers: profile views of rightward movements, approaching movements, and 3/4 profile diagonal movements. Subjects' task was to judge if the walker was male or female. The results showed almost the same judgement accuracy for all directions in male walkers, and the highest accuracy for the approaching movement in female walkers. The subjects tended to judge the presented walkers to be male more frequently than female.