Development of visual perception of others' actions: Children's judgment of lifted weight.

Humans are excellent at perceiving different features of the actions performed by others. For instance, by viewing someone else manipulating an unknown object, one can infer its weight-an intrinsic feature otherwise not directly accessible through vision. How such perceptual skill develops during ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alessandra Sciutti, Laura Patanè, Giulio Sandini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224979
Description
Summary:Humans are excellent at perceiving different features of the actions performed by others. For instance, by viewing someone else manipulating an unknown object, one can infer its weight-an intrinsic feature otherwise not directly accessible through vision. How such perceptual skill develops during childhood remains unclear. To confront this gap, the current study had children (N:63, 6-10 years old) and adults (N:21) judge the weight of objects after observing videos of an actor lifting them. Although 6-year-olds could already discriminate different weights, judgment accuracy had not reached adult-like levels by 10 years of age. Additionally, children's stature was a more reliable predictor of their ability to read others' actions than was their chronological age. This paper discusses the results in light of a potential link between motor development and action perception.
ISSN:1932-6203