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SUMMARY:Visual discrimination of interacting human agents - Peter Neri\, C
 ity University\, London
DTSTART:20070424T120000Z
DTEND:20070424T130000Z
UID:TALK7121@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Cordula Becker
DESCRIPTION:Although the ability to interpret and predict other people's a
 ctions is\nbelieved to play a central role in human cognitive behavior\, t
 here is no\ndirect evidence that this ability confers a tangible benefit t
 o sensory\nprocessing. This talk describes quantitative behavioral experim
 ents showing that visual discrimination of a human agent is influenced by 
 the presence of a second agent. This effect depends on whether the two age
 nts interact (by fighting or dancing) in a meaningful synchronized fashion
  that allows the actions of one agent to serve as predictors for the expec
 ted actions of the other agent\, even though synchronization is irrelevant
  to the visual discrimination task. These results demonstrate that action 
 understanding has a pervasive impact on the human ability to extract visua
 l information from the actions of other humans\, providing quantitative ev
 idence of its significance for sensory performance.
LOCATION:Seminar Room (ground floor)\, Craik-Marshall Building
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