Perception of Kinematic Characteristics in the Motion of Lifted Weight

It has been widely shown that human observers are able to perceive lifted weight from the observation of a point-light display of the lifter's action. In the experiments reported here, the kinematic information used by observers to perceive a lifted weight was determined. In Experiment 1, observers (N = 30) were able to identify weights (5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 kg) successfully by observing only the lift phase of the action. Other procedures, such as walking while holding the weight and placing the weight on a table, did not result in significantly improved estimations. In Experiment 2, the kinematic patterns used by 4 lifters with weights varying from 5 to 25 kg were examined. Changes in weight lifted resulted in changes in lift velocity, hip angle, and dwell time. In Experiment 3, in which 15 observers participated, these 3 kinematic variables were experimentally manipulated. The results indicated that observation was most significantly influenced by variations in lift velocity. The results are discussed in relation to kinematic specification of dynamics and heuristic approaches.