EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF A MOVEMENT SIGNATURE IN SPORT

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether consistent kinematic characteristics exist that enable perceptual categorisation and recognition of movement. Two forms of point-light presentation were employed, a person wearing black clothing in a blackened environment with the joints marked by reflective tape (RT) and a second presentation where the body and background were removed completely and the joints represented by a blue dot (801 or 802). The results of experiment 1 showed the blue dot presentation elicited more correct answers than the RT presentation (p = .005). The blackened background showed some environmental cues in addition to the point-light data, which may have had a distraction effect. Consequently a second experiment was conducted to confirm the differences in the two methods and control for any possible order of presentation. The results stlowed the BD presentation was superior for recognition of consistent kinematic characteristics in randomised presentations (p = .000).