Previous research has found that because astronauts have a unique visuomotor perception experience with inverted movements in space, they can interpret inverted movements more accurately than people on Earth.
The inversion effect can now be overcome in the perception of biological motion by people on Earth with extensive visuomotor experience with inverted movements, such as vertical dancers, according to a recent study in which University of Wyoming researchers played crucial lead roles.
An article titled “Extended Visuomotor Experience With Inverted Movements Can Overcome the Inversions of Effect in Biological Motion Perception” was published on October 20 in Scientific Reports, an online peer-reviewed, open-access journal that covers all branches of the natural sciences. The paper’s lead and senior author was Qin Zhu, a professor of kinesiology and health at the University of Washington.
According to Zhu, “we demonstrated that the inversion effect in biological motion perception (BMP) may be overcome, as suggested by the title of the article.” Because it is a survival skill that both humans and animals share, BMP is fascinating. We are able to read the movements made by individuals of the same or different species and determine the identity of the actor as well as the actor’s intended meaning. Consequently, we may better plan our response, whether it is to flee or to engage. However, this capacity will be severely hampered if the motion is carried out upside-down, or inverted. ”
The paper’s second author is Margaret Wilson, a professor and the chair of the UW Department of Theatre and Dance. Wilson helped with the motion capture of the dance moves, found vertical dancers for the experiment, read the article, and gave the study a list of vertical dance moves.
Another one of the paper’s lead authors was Xiaoye Wang, a postdoctoral scholar in the University of Toronto‘s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education. Together with Wang, Zhu came up with the idea for the investigation, planned and carried it out, looked at the results, wrote and revised the report.
Other people who helped with the study came from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Shanghai University of Sport, which helped find more people to include in the study from China.
52 adult volunteers participated in the study; 15 had no prior dance training, 21 had an average of 7.71 years of conventional dance training, and 16 had an average of 4.75 years of vertical dancing training. The UW and European dancers who performed vertically
On a computer, 40 dancing moves were displayed as point-light displays for the subjects. One dance movement was done on the ground and another was performed in the air in each of the ten pairs of dance moves. The display was intentionally reversed in half of the test runs. Vertical dancers, traditional dancers, and people who don’t dance were asked if the display was made to be upside down or if it was the way it was meant to be.
The inversion maneuvers carried out in the air could only be distinguished by vertical dancers. Vertical dancers were just as good at spotting an artificial inversion whether the dance move was done on the ground or in the air.
According to the paper, traditional dancers and non-dancers who had never performed an inverted movement were unable to tell the difference between the inversion on the point-light display and the inversion for the inverted moves done in the air. The results of this study show that people need more experience with inverted movements in order to be able to spot inverted biological motion.
According to Zhu, inverted movements can be perceived and understood by people who have experience of doing or watching them while floating in the air.
Therefore, Zhu argues, viewers who have previously witnessed vertical dance performances will comprehend inverted moves better than those who haven’t. And people who want to learn and do vertical dance in the future need to do both visual and motor training for the inverted movements to improve their awareness and perception of their own movements in relation to their partners or spectators.
Zhu says that untrained people can judge the movements of upright dance “quite well” compared to dance professionals. This suggests that there may be some overlap between the movements of upright dance and the movements of everyday life.
Zhu says that based on science fiction, Spiderman should be able to read backwards movements better than anyone else.
In a follow-up study, an eye tracker was used to compare the ways that vertical dancers and traditional dancers look at the point-light displays to judge the actions.
Zhu says that based on what the research found, a visual training program will be made for UW students taking classes in vertical dancing.
