Rowing, Expertise and Biological Motion S Liebert, U Strandenes Alvaer, I M Thornton |
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Psychology Department, Swansea University, United Kingdom
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| The majority of biological motion studies have used point-light walkers as stimuli. In the present work we examined rowing as another periodic movement pattern that might provide a useful context for studying biological motion. We recorded motion capture data from 12 actors (6 male, 6 female) who varied in their level of rowing experience. Stroke rate was normalised at 16 strokes per minute, and we extracted one “light” pressure and one “firm” pressure stroke from each rower to serve as experimental stimuli. A custom iPad application was written to present looped, point-light versions of each stroke together with three rating sliders. We asked observers to rate each stroke on three dimensions: actor gender, actor expertise and stroke effort. A total of 43 participants took part in this rating experiment. Twenty-one were currently active rowers and twenty-two were non-rowers. On all three dimensions participant responses could be used to distinguish between the underlying action categories. The experienced rowers outperformed the non-rowers only on the perception of stroke effort. These results demonstrate that information can be extracted from point-light rowing patterns and provides further evidence that visual and/or motor expertise can modulate performance. |
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