Motion information contributing to the perception of animacy or inanimacy from the motion of a single object

摘要

The purpose of this study was to identify the information with which we perceive animacy or inanimacy from the motion of a single object. 26 animations of single-object motion were made by a personal computer on the basis of various motions extracted from the locomotion of several kinds of animals and insects sad the movements of various objects caused by gravity and rebound, which were recorded by a digital video camera. Those animations were presented to 45 women's junior college students who were instructed to rate each animation on a 1-7 scale in terms of animacy. Results showed that motion based on real animal locomotion was judged to be animated motion, and that the reasons for this judgment included many changes in direction of motion, motion against gravity and motion with negative acceleration (i.e. motion in which the velocity was faster just after a direction change, then gradually slowed down).