IADMS Australia 2007   [back to the Category]

IADMS 2007 - Abstract #142 - Perception of Dance Movement Patterns: Self-recognition with expert bal   [read the french version]

Author :   IADMS 2007 - Shantel Ehrenberg

Perception of Dance Movement Patterns: Self-recognition with expert ballet dancers

Ehrenberg, Shantel MFA, MSc, Laban, London, United Kingdom; Calvo-Merino, Beatriz PhD, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London; Redding, Emma MSc, Laban, London, United Kingdom; and Haggard, Patrick PhD, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Intro

Do dancers use both visual and proprioceptive information when recognising themselves dancing through point-light video displays?  While one study found this to be the case¹, there is a lack of research to substantiate the extent to which dancers utilise proprioceptive information in dance.  The current study was designed to further investigate the use of visual and proprioceptive information during self-recognition of ballet dance action.  

Methods

In session I dancers performed specified ballet vocabulary using the point-light technique.²  

Session II involved the same group of dancers watching the processed point-light videos and answering questions during a set of visual discrimination (VD) and self-recognition (SR) forced-choice tasks.  Researchers hypothesised that if dancers were better at a SR task, than a VD task, than there is something above and beyond visual information used to recognize the self.  The study was approved by an institutional ethics committee and informed consent was given.  

Results

Performance accuracy was above chance (chance level = 50%) for VD and SR between ?self? and ?other? point light displays.  Comparison of accuracy rates between the VD and SR tasks revealed no significant difference.  

Discussion

Results indicated that movement idiosyncrasy was controlled across participants and supported the idea that this group of dancers could still recognize the self even when idiosyncrasy was controlled.  Comparison of the VD and SR results suggested participants did not require any additional information for the VD task than for the SR task.  These results suggested that dancers do not use any special private proprioceptive information to complete a SR task.

1. Loula, F., Prasad, S., Harber, K., Shiffrar, M. (2005) Recognizing People From Their Movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 31(1), 210-220.

2. Johansson, G. (1973) Visual perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis. Perception and Psychophysics, 14, 201-211.