Local Dot Motion, Not Global Configuration, Determines Dogs' Preference for Point-Light Displays

doi:10.3390/ani9090661

. 2019 Sep 6;9(9):661.

doi: 10.3390/ani9090661.

Local Dot Motion, Not Global Configuration, Determines Dogs' Preference for Point-Light Displays

Carla J Eatherington¹, Lieta Marinelli², Miina Lõoke³, Luca Battaglini⁴, Paolo Mongillo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. carlaeatherington12@gmail.com.
² Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. lieta.marinelli@unipd.it.
³ Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. miina.looke@studenti.unipd.it.
⁴ Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. luca.battaglini@unipd.it.
⁵ Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. paolo.mongillo@unipd.it.

PMID: 31489919
PMCID: PMC6770411
DOI: 10.3390/ani9090661

Local Dot Motion, Not Global Configuration, Determines Dogs' Preference for Point-Light Displays

Carla J Eatherington et al. Animals (Basel). 2019.

. 2019 Sep 6;9(9):661.

doi: 10.3390/ani9090661.

Authors

Carla J Eatherington¹, Lieta Marinelli², Miina Lõoke³, Luca Battaglini⁴, Paolo Mongillo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. carlaeatherington12@gmail.com.
² Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. lieta.marinelli@unipd.it.
³ Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. miina.looke@studenti.unipd.it.
⁴ Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. luca.battaglini@unipd.it.
⁵ Laboratory of Applied Ethology, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy. paolo.mongillo@unipd.it.

PMID: 31489919
PMCID: PMC6770411
DOI: 10.3390/ani9090661

Abstract

Visual perception remains an understudied area of dog cognition, particularly the perception of biological motion where the small amount of previous research has created an unclear impression regarding dogs' visual preference towards different types of point-light displays. To date, no thorough investigation has been conducted regarding which aspects of the motion contained in point-light displays attract dogs. To test this, pet dogs (N = 48) were presented with pairs of point-light displays with systematic manipulation of motion features (i.e., upright or inverted orientation, coherent or scrambled configuration, human or dog species). Results revealed a significant effect of inversion, with dogs directing significantly longer looking time towards upright than inverted dog point-light displays; no effect was found for scrambling or the scrambling-inversion interaction. No looking time bias was found when dogs were presented with human point-light displays, regardless of their orientation or configuration. The results of the current study imply that dogs' visual preference is driven by the motion of individual dots in accordance with gravity, rather than the point-light display's global arrangement, regardless their long exposure to human motion.

Keywords: biological motion; dog; experience; point-light display; visual perception.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Screenshots exemplifying different types of stimuli used in the experiment: (a) human upright coherent, (b) human inverted coherent, (c) human upright scrambled, (d) human inverted scrambled, (e) dog upright coherent, (f) dog inverted coherent, (g) dog upright scrambled and (h) dog inverted scrambled.

**Figure 2**
A video-still of the experimental setting, during a presentation.

**Figure 3**
Mean ± SD amount of attention paid by dogs to upright-coherent (UC), upright-scrambled (US), inverted-coherent (IC) and inverted-scrambled (IS) light-point figures representing a walking dog or a walking human.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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References

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[1] Johansson G. Visual perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis. Percept. Psychophys. 1973;14:201–211. doi: 10.3758/BF03212378. - DOI

[2] Johansson G. Visual perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis. Percept. Psychophys. 1973;14:201–211. doi: 10.3758/BF03212378. - DOI

[3] Barclay C.D., Cutting J.E., Kozlowski L.T. Temporal and spatial factors in gait perception that influence gender recognition. Percept. Psychophys. 1978;23:145–152. doi: 10.3758/BF03208295. - DOI - PubMed

[4] Barclay C.D., Cutting J.E., Kozlowski L.T. Temporal and spatial factors in gait perception that influence gender recognition. Percept. Psychophys. 1978;23:145–152. doi: 10.3758/BF03208295. - DOI - PubMed

[5] Mather G., Murdoch L. Gender discrimination in biological motion displays based on dynamic cues. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 1994;258:273–279. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1994.0173. - DOI

[6] Mather G., Murdoch L. Gender discrimination in biological motion displays based on dynamic cues. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 1994;258:273–279. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1994.0173. - DOI

[7] Dittrich W.H., Troscianko T., Lea S.E., Morgan D. Perception of emotion from dynamic point-light displays represented in dance. Perception. 1996;25:727–738. doi: 10.1068/p250727. - DOI - PubMed

[8] Dittrich W.H., Troscianko T., Lea S.E., Morgan D. Perception of emotion from dynamic point-light displays represented in dance. Perception. 1996;25:727–738. doi: 10.1068/p250727. - DOI - PubMed

[9] Cutting J.E., Kozlowski L.T. Recognizing friends by their walk: Gait perception without familiarity cues. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 1977;9:353–356. doi: 10.3758/BF03337021. - DOI

[10] Cutting J.E., Kozlowski L.T. Recognizing friends by their walk: Gait perception without familiarity cues. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 1977;9:353–356. doi: 10.3758/BF03337021. - DOI

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Local Dot Motion, Not Global Configuration, Determines Dogs' Preference for Point-Light Displays

Affiliations

Local Dot Motion, Not Global Configuration, Determines Dogs' Preference for Point-Light Displays

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

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References

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