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Perception of the symmetrical patterning of human gait by infants

Amy E Booth1, Bennett I Bertenthal, Jeannine Pinto

  • 1Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-2710, USA. a-booth@northwestern.edu

Developmental Psychology
|July 2, 2002
PubMed

Insights

Infants

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Perception
  • Human motion analysis

Background:

  • Human gait perception is crucial for social interaction.
  • Understanding infant visual processing of biological motion is key.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate infant sensitivity to kinematic properties of human gait.
  • To determine age-related changes in gait perception.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments using point-light displays of human gait.
  • Testing 3- and 5-month-old infants' discrimination abilities.
  • Manipulating limb movement phasing and symmetry.

Main Results:

  • 3-month-olds discriminated walker vs. runner displays (Experiment 1).
  • 5-month-olds did not discriminate walker vs. runner displays (Experiment 1).
  • Both age groups discriminated walker vs. phase-shifted runner displays (Experiment 2).

Conclusions:

  • 3-month-olds focus on individual limb motion.
  • 5-month-olds focus on inter-limb relations and bilateral symmetry.
  • Infant perception of gait develops significantly between 3 and 5 months.

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