ABSTRACT
While it seems obvious that to recognise friends and acquaintances we rely on a combination of facial features, hair colouring and style, stature and clothing, Kozlowski and Cutting (1977) cite an earlier study in which they found that we can visually identify friends without any of this information. Employing a technique similar to that illustrated by Johansson (1975, p. 87) they videotaped individuals walking. These individuals were dressed in dark clothing with reflective tape wrapped around wrists, elbows, ankles, knees and placed on hips and shoulders. When the resulting videos were shown with maximum contrast and minimum brightness, all that could be seen was a series of moving lights, each one representing one body joint. Johansson had previously shown that if the individual was stationary when filmed these lights would seem to take no apparent form. If the individual was moving, however, observers had no difficulty in identifying the lights as a moving person.
