Configural processing in the perception of apparent biological motion

In classic demonstrations of apparent motion, observers typically report seeing motion along the shortest possible path between 2 sequentially presented objects. However, when realistic photographs of a human body are sequentially presented at slow temporal rates, observers report paths of apparent motion that are consistent with the movement limitations of the human body even when those paths are not the shortest possible. The current set of experiments examined those aspects of the human form that lead to the perception of biomechanically consistent paths of motion. The authors' findings suggest that the perception of apparent biological motion extends to human movements that involve inanimate objects. The authors also report that observers can perceive apparent motion of nonbiological objects in a manner similar to apparent motion of human bodies. However, a global hierarchy of orientation and position cues resembling the human form is required for the perception of these paths.