Bodily Activity and Perceptual Activity

Abstract

This report describes the results of 2 studies designed to test the hypothesis that there is an inverse relation between bodily and perceptual activity. In Study I 100 college students' bodily movements were recorded by kymograph while they were tested for the autokinetic illusion, reversible figure-ground, Necker cube reversals, and visual figural aftereffects. No significant correlations were found between bodily movement and perceptual scores. Study II involved only autokinetic illusion scores and induced bodily activity of 200 Ss. Significant linear correlations were found in the expected direction, i.e., bodily movement correlated positively with autokinetic latency in both males and females; bodily movement was negatively correlated with extent of autokinetic movement in females. Female Ss in both studies showed significantly greater autokinetic latency than males.