Representation of dynamic events triggered by motion lines and static human postures

Artists and cartoonists are able to dexterously depict a running person on paper with the aid of 'motion lines'. We scientifically examined whether the cognitive system can exploit motion lines in constructing memory representations of the location of a running person depicted in a still image. A target depicting a standing or a running person with or without motion lines was presented to participants for 500 ms. Observers were required to reproduce the location of the target 1 s after its disappearance. Data from depicted leftward and rightward moving persons were collapsed. Memory displacement of the target was shown to be largest in the presence of motion lines and a posture indicating an identical direction of movement. By assessing the absolute localization error, we showed that there was no localization advantage toward a target with a symmetrical (standing) posture over one with an asymmetrical (running) posture. Our findings indicate synergetic interaction between the mechanisms responsible for processing of motion lines and human postures in the representation of dynamic events.