科學(xué)家利用點光源圖形來研究人們?nèi)绾闻袛噙\動的趨勢,。（圖片提供:J. Vanrie/Brooks et al）
在漆黑的夜晚,，當(dāng)你快步從一條胡同中走過時,，遠(yuǎn)處出現(xiàn)了一個黑影，其輪廓剛剛能夠在暗淡的月光下看到,。是否有一個陌生人在向你逼近,？根據(jù)一項新的研究，如果這個人是男性,，那么你的感官會得出肯定的判斷,，即便他實際上正越走越遠(yuǎn)。
一個人走路的姿勢能夠反映其當(dāng)時的狀態(tài),。例如,，彎腰駝背以及吃力的步態(tài)象征著憂愁的情緒。研究人員通常都使用一種所謂的點光源圖形——按照人體輪廓排列的光點集合——來研究這類信息,。這些圖形一般都只能傳遞最小的信息,，然而只需簡單地擴大代表肩部區(qū)域的點集或縮小代表腰部區(qū)域的點集，便能夠使這些圖形看起來更加男性化或女性化,。
比利時Leuven大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家Ben Schouten和同事試圖搞清,，為點光源圖形賦予一個特定的性別是否能夠影響觀察者對圖形運動方向的判斷。研究人員要求5名志愿者——3名女性及2名男性——在計算機屏幕上觀看點光源圖形的錄像,。通過改變光點的排列,，研究人員使這些圖形看起來要么很男性、要么很女性,、要么很中性,。志愿者每次會觀看3到4秒鐘的圖形行走錄像，然后再去判斷這些圖形是走向自己還是遠(yuǎn)離自己,。研究人員隨后向志愿者展示了第二套錄像,，這套錄像的背景中合并了細(xì)微的變化，從而能夠提供步行者行走方向的更多信息,。
平均來看,，在每次測試中，受試者更多地判斷代表女性的圖形向著遠(yuǎn)離自己的方向運動,；而代表男性的圖形則更多地向著自己的方向運動,。研究人員在最新的《當(dāng)代生物學(xué)》（Current Biology）雜志上報告了這一研究成果。而這種判斷在男性和女性志愿者中并沒有差別,。
為什么會得出這樣的結(jié)論,，研究人員至今尚未搞清，但他們推測,，這可能是一種進化上的優(yōu)勢,，并打算進行更多的研究從而更好地理解這種相互關(guān)系。Schouten指出：“男性的靠近可能傳遞了某些危險的信號,，而女性的遠(yuǎn)離則意味著可以讓孩子們安全地跟隨,。”美國加利福尼亞州圣地亞哥市索爾克生物學(xué)研究所的神經(jīng)科學(xué)家Gene R. Stoner則警告說，這里可能還有其他的可能性。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Current Biology,，Vol 18, R728-R729, 09 September 2008,，Anna Brooks, Ben Schouten, Rick van der Zwan
Correlated changes in perceptions of the gender and orientation of ambiguous biological motion figures
Anna Brooks,1 Ben Schouten,2 Nikolaus F. Troje,3 Karl Verfaillie,2 Olaf Blanke,4 and Rick van der Zwan1
1 Laboratory of Perceptual Processing, Department of Psychology, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, NSW 2450, Australia
2 Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium
3 Department of Psychology and School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7M 3N6, Canada
4 Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain-Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
The sensitivity of the mammalian visual system to biological motion cues has been shown to be general and acute [1, 2, 3]. Human observers, in particular, can deduce higher-order information, such as the orientation of a figure (which way it is facing), its gender, emotional state, and even personality traits, on the basis only of sparse motion cues. Even when the stimulus information is confined to point lights attached to the major joints of an actor (so-called point-light figures), observers can use information about the way the actor is moving to tell what they are doing, whether they are a male or female, and how they are feeling [4, 5, 6]. Here we report the novel finding that stimulus manipulations that made such walkers appear more female also had the effect of making the walkers appear more often as if they were walking away from rather than towards observers. Using frontal-view (or rear-view) point-light displays of human walkers, we asked observers to judge whether they seemed to be walking towards or away from the viewing position. Independent of their own gender, observers reliably reported those figures they perceived to be male as looking like they were approaching (as reported in [7]), but those they perceived to be female as walking away. Furthermore, figures perceived to be gender-neutral also appeared more often, although not exclusively, to be walking towards observers.
