Recognizing and predicting movement effects: identifying critical movement features.

It is not clear whether the critical features used to discriminate movements are identical to those involved in predicting the same movement's effects and consequently, whether the mechanisms underlying recognition and anticipation differ. We examined whether people rely on different kinematic information when required to recognize differences in the movement pattern in comparison to when they have to anticipate the outcome of these same movements. Naïve participants were presented with paired presentations of point-light animated tennis shots that ended at racket-ball contact. We instructed them either to judge whether the movements observed were the same or different or to predict shot direction (left vs. right). In addition, we locally manipulated the kinematics of point-light figures in an effort to identify the critical features used when making recognition and anticipation judgments. It appears that observers rely on different sources of information when required to recognize movement differences compared to when they need to anticipate the outcome of the same observed movements. Findings are discussed with reference to recent ideas focusing on the role of perceptual and motor resonance in perceptual judgments.