Cutting (1978 Perception 7 393 – 405) suggested that the ‘centre of moment’ (Cm) plays an important role in the perception of biological motion, especially in gender recognition. The aim of the present study was to examine whether observers could detect a difference in gender from the biological motion pattern and to what degree the Cm index was effective in the recognition of gender. Five males and five females (aged 20 to 25 years) walked in front of a camera from left to right to generate point-light walkers. These point-light walkers consisted of 13 moving dots which were generated by the motion of the actual walking humans. The sequences were replayed in the middle of a TV monitor at 30 frames s−1. Thirty subjects (fifteen males and fifteen females) observed ten different point-light walkers which were presented five times in random order. Subjects recognised the gender more correctly in the case of male walkers (70%) than female walkers (52%). The responses were examined for those point-light walkers showing Cm values similar to the Cm for males of 0.56 – 0.57 and the Cm for females of 0.50 – 0.51. It was found that some people could be recognised whereas others could not, even if they had similar Cm values. The Cm index seems to be useful for recognising gender in some point-light walkers but not in others. To conclude, masculine or feminine walking styles are not defined only by differences in the Cm index.
