Contribution of configural information in a direction discrimination task: evidence using a novel masking paradigm

Understanding how structure and motion information contribute to the perception of biological motion is often studied with masking techniques. Current techniques in masking point-light walkers typically rely on adding surrounding masking dots or altering phase relations between joints. Here, we demonstrate the use of novel stimuli that make it possible to determine the noise level at which the local motion cues mask the opposing configural cues without changing the number of overall points in the display. Results show improved direction discrimination when configural cues are present compared to when the identical local motion signals are present but lack configural information.