Development of interactive biological motion perception in preschoolers and its relation to social competence

Abstract

The perception of interactive biological motion (BM) plays an important role in social life. Such social perception enables people to understand the underlying social intentions and social relationships in interactive actions, so that they can anticipate the behavior response in an appropriate manner. Although interaction perception has been widely explored in adults, little is known about preschoolers' developmental trajectory of interaction perception and its further impact on social development. This study explored the development of interaction perception in a dyadic BM situation and its relation to teachers' report of social competence among 3–6‐year olds (N = 119). Children were asked to watch videos of dyadic BM and decide whether two characters were interacting or not. The results suggested that the sensitivity of BM perception continues to develop during the entire preschool age period and is positively associated with children's social competence among children aged 5–6, even after controlling for age and language ability. However, for younger children aged 3–4, language ability rather than perception of social interaction positively correlated with their social competence. Our findings review the rapid development of interactive BM perception in early childhood and highlight the important role of interaction perception in preschoolers’ social development.

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“…Moreover, it should be noted that the study of Rice et al (2016) did not find a correlation between biological motion perception and physical inferences from stories (e.g., “getting wet because a bush poked holes in his umbrella”), suggesting that biological motion perception is specifically linked to mental state inferences [ 48 ]. As children progress through the preschool age range, the accuracy of biological motion recognition continues to increase and is associated with social proficiency [ 64 ].…”

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