Visual perception of travel distance for self-motion through crowds

Humans can use visual motion to estimate the distance they have traveled. In static environments, optic flow generated by self-motion provides a pattern of expanding motion that is used for the estimation of travel distance. When the environment is populated by other people, their biological motion...

Verfasser: Hülemeier, Anna-Gesina
Lappe, Markus
FB/Einrichtung:FB 07: Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft
Dokumenttypen:Artikel
Medientypen:Text
Erscheinungsdatum:2023
Publikation in MIAMI:02.02.2024
Datum der letzten Änderung:02.02.2024
Angaben zur Ausgabe:[Electronic ed.]
Quelle:JOV Journal of Vision 23 (2023) 4, 1-11
Schlagwörter:optic flow; distance perception; biological motion; point-light walkers; leaky path integration
Fachgebiet (DDC):150: Psychologie
Lizenz:CC BY 4.0
Sprache:English
Förderung:Finanziert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der Universität Münster.
Format:PDF-Dokument
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-17978575789
Weitere Identifikatoren:DOI: 10.17879/27978630164
Permalink:https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-17978575789
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  • Onlinezugriff:10.1167_jov.23.4.7.pdf

    Humans can use visual motion to estimate the distance they have traveled. In static environments, optic flow generated by self-motion provides a pattern of expanding motion that is used for the estimation of travel distance. When the environment is populated by other people, their biological motion destroys the one-to-on correspondence between optic flow and travel distance. We investigated how observers estimate travel distance in a crowded environment. In three conditions, we simulated self-motion through a crowd of standing, approaching, or leading point-light walkers. For a standing crowd, optic flow is a veridical signal for distance perception. For an approaching crowd, the visual motion is the sum of the self-motion–induced optic flow and the optic flow produced by the approaching walkers. If only optic flow were to be used, travel distance estimates would be too high because of the approaching direction of the crowd toward the observer. If, on the other hand, cues from biological motion could be used to estimate the speed of the crowd, then the excessive optic from the approaching crowd flow might be compensated. In the leading crowd condition, in which walkers of the crowd keep their distance from the observer as they walk along with the observer, no optic flow is produced. In this condition, travel distance estimation would have to rely solely on biological motion information. We found that distance estimation was quite similar across these three conditions. This suggests that biological motion information can be used (a) to compensate for excessive optic flow in the approaching crowd condition and (b) to generate distance information in the leading crowd condition.