Move Still: The Effects of Implied and Real Motion on the Duration Estimates of Dance Steps

Abstract

It has been argued that movement can be implied by static cues of images depicting an instance of a dynamic event. Instances of implied motion have been investigated as a special type of stimulus with common processing mechanisms to those of real motion. Timing studies have reported a lengthening of the perceived time for moving as opposed to static stimuli and for stimuli of higher as compared to lower amounts of implied motion. However, the actual comparison of real versus implied motion on timing has never been investigated. In the present study, we compared directly the effect of two hypothetically analogous ballet steps with different amounts of movement and static instances of the dynamic peak of these events in a reproduction task. The analysis revealed an overestimation and lower response variability for real as compared to implied motion stimuli. These findings replicate and extend the apparent duration lengthening for moving as compared to static stimulation, even for static images containing implied motion, questioning whether or not the previously reported correspondence between real and implied motion transfers in the timing domain. This lack of correspondence was further supported by the finding that the amount of movement presented affected only displays of real motion.

A Directional Congruency Effect of Amplified Dilated Time Perception Induced by Looming Stimuli With Implied Motion Cues

“…However, Experiment 2 demonstrated a significant duration perception effect of real motion direction-a temporal overestimation of looming stimuli relative to receding stimuli, replicating previous findings of the looming/receding asymmetry using human-character stimuli (van Wassenhove et al, 2008;Wittmann et al, 2010). This contrast between implied and real motion influences on time perception suggests that real motion stimuli contained a greater amount of motion signal than static implied motion stimuli and that implied motion alone was too weak to produce an effect of motion direction in duration perception (Sgouramani et al, 2019). Most importantly, we found a duration perception effect from motion directional congruency between real and implied motion, such that participants judged the presentation duration of target stimuli as longer when the direction of real in depth motion of the stimuli (looming/expanding or receding/contracting) were in agreement with that of implied motion of the stimuli (facing toward or away from the observer) than when these motion cues represented stimuli movements in opposite directions.…”

“…Even though a number of previous studies reported that implied motion is comparable to real motion in the temporal domain (e.g., Moscatelli et al, 2011;Yamamoto & Miura, 2012; but see Sgouramani et al, 2019), an online interplay between real and implied motion in time perception has rarely been investigated. To our knowledge, the current study was the first investigation to demonstrate that the looming/receding temporal asymmetry can be modulated by the directional congruency or incongruency of implied motion.…”

“…Of particular relevance to the current study, timing research has recently investigated the influence of implied motion in duration perception (e.g., Moscatelli et al, 2011;Yamamoto & Miura, 2012; but see Sgouramani et al, 2019). For instance, presentations of photographs of dancer sculptures depicting implied intense body movement are perceived to last longer than those depicting little movement , and presentations of static pictures with implied human movement lead to more precise timing estimation than those with no implied motion (Moscatelli et al, 2011).…”

Happy is stronger than sad: Emotional information modulates social attention.

“…It should be pointed out that the BM and face cues varied inherently in their motion state, as faces with averted gaze involved implied motion while the BM stimuli were real motion. Several studies have reported that real motion would evoke stronger pupillary responses (Castellotti et al, 2021) and be overestimated in duration (Sgouramani et al, 2019) compared with implied motion. However, face cues involving implied motion could trigger larger attentional orienting effect than that induced by BM stimuli with real motion (Wang et al, 2020).…”