Vassilis Sevdalis

Captured by motion: Dance, action understanding, and social cognition

In this review article, we summarize the main findings from empirical studies that used dance-related forms of rhythmical full body movement as a research tool for investigating action understanding and social cognition. This work has proven to be informative about behavioral and brain mechanisms that mediate links between perceptual and motor processes invoked during the observation and execution of spatially-temporally coordinated action and interpersonal interaction. The review focuses specifically on processes related to (a) motor experience and expertise, (b) learning and memory, (c) action, intention, and emotion understanding, and (d) audio-visual synchrony and timing. Consideration is given to the relationship between research on dance and more general embodied cognition accounts of action understanding and social cognition. Finally, open questions and issues concerning experimental design are discussed with a view to stimulating future research on social-cognitive aspects of dance.

Cues for self-recognition in point-light displays of actions performed in synchrony with music

Self-other discrimination was investigated with point-light displays in which actions were presented with or without additional auditory information. Participants first executed different actions (dancing, walking and clapping) in time with music. In two subsequent experiments, they watched point-light displays of their own or another participants recorded actions, and were asked to identify the agent (self vs. other). Manipulations were applied to the visual information (actions differing in complexity, and degradation from 15 to 2 point-lights within the same clapping action) and to the auditory information (self-generated vs. externally-generated vs. none). Results indicate that self-recognition was better than chance in all conditions and was highest when observing relatively unconstrained patterns of movement. Auditory information did not increase accuracy even with the most ambiguous visual displays, suggesting that judgments of agent identity depend much more on motor cues than on auditory (action-generated) or audiovisual (synchronization) information.

Self-recognition in the perception of actions performed in synchrony with music

This study investigated self‐recognition in point‐light displays depicting actions performed in synchrony with music. Participants were recorded executing three different actions (dancing, walking, and clapping) and were subsequently required to identify the agent (self versus other) from point‐light displays with or without the accompanying music. Results indicate that while recognition accuracy was better than chance for all actions, it was best for the relatively complex dance actions. The presence of music did not affect accuracy, suggesting that self‐recognition was based on information about personal movement kinematics rather than individual differences in synchrony between movements and music.

Capturing Motion for Enhancing Performance: An Embodied Cognition Perspective on Sports and the Performing Arts

This chapter presents a perspective on how embodied practices situated in performance environments such as sports and the performing arts (i.e., music and dance) can support perception–action links. Drawing on literature on embodied cognition, ecological psychology, and recent research that applies motion capture technology, we outline how performance competencies can be grounded on the capacities of the human body, with a particular emphasis on sensorimotor skills. We argue that the coupling of action and perception is fundamentally established in ecologically valid performance contexts. Action–perception relationships can be optimally investigated in performance domains where sensorimotor skills unfold naturally (e.g., in development and learning) and are manifested at their best (e.g., in expert performance). The contribution of such an approach is to uncover the mechanisms upon which social cognition is established, and how body–environment interactions can be implemented for the training of performing individuals.