In press: In: Dimitrova-Vulchanova, M - NTNU

translation vs. non-translation (regular running vs. running on the spot or running on a
treadmill), vector orientation (horizontal: forwards vs. backwards vs. to the left/ right,
vertical: up vs. down), figure orientation (front forwards, front backwards), shape of path
(straight, circular), substrate (ground vs. branch vs. leaf, smooth vs. grassy surface). The
stimuli were pre-screened and judged for prototypicality by 5 adult speakers for each
language. Based in the judgements from the pre-test screening, we selected 29 target scenes
(cf. Appendix 1), divided into 9 walking scenes, 9 running scenes, 8 crawling scenes, and 3
climbing up/ down scenes.
The participants were adult native speakers of the respective language: 16 for Bulgarian,
16 for Norwegian, and 12 for English. They were randomly selected for age and sex. Each of
the participants completed the experiment separately, in the presence of staff conducting the
experiment.
4.2 The procedure
Subjects viewed the clips in a single session, with a brief break in between each two blocks of
trials. They received detailed instructions from staff conducting the experiment before the
start of each session, and also on screen before each block of trials. They were advised to
provide the first word/description that came to mind and allowed to work at their own pace.
Each image froze after the showing time expired and could not be played back for reference.
Subjects were then prompted to enter their responses in a text box that appeared under the
image. Below the text box there was a digit box for selecting the value for level of
confidence. After filling in this box subjects could proceed to the next clip.
4.3 Design
The scenes presented in the experiment were not matched on parameters like settings,
physiological characteristics of the agents, viewing angle, etc. We wanted to elicit preliminary
responses to as many different instances of the actions as possible, and include not only
humans but other species as well. For this purpose, we had to use natural settings and
deliberately ignore the context uniformity requirement. As the experiment was planned as an
exploratory study for a sequence of further experiments on the encoding of biological motion,
its purpose was not to check systematically for all of the above factors, but to give general
indications of their role and potential significance in motion categorization and naming, and
thus help to direct the attention to specific features for further research. We are aware that the
results should be interpreted accordingly. Thus, the current study has provided a good starting
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