630 APPENDICES not to build an attachment relationship. Being moved together with the movements of the other creates a path of connection towards the other, and that is what we utilize. We can conclude from the above that perceiving motion in the observer evokes motion. This can be an inner motion in the form of empathy, but also a motion focused on action, as seen in goslings’ following behaviour. Although motions can also start without an identifiable external cause, most motions are triggered by sensory stimuli from the environment. Sensory information is therefore inherently connected to motor skills or sensorimotor skills as Piaget would say. Sensory perception of smell, colour, touch, or taste evokes a motion (action) in the observer. In cognitive psychology, this is referred to as perception-action coupling (e.g., Wagman & Miller, 2003). In addition to the sense-specific (modal) characteristics of each sense, senses are also sensitive to sense-independent (amodal) qualities. For example, each sense is sensitive to intensity. The eyes are sensitive to the strength of light, the ears to the loudness of sound, the tongue to the intensity of taste stimuli, and the nose to the intensity of smell stimuli. The speed (i.e., rhythm) with which the presence/absence of the stimulus changes is also registered by all the senses, as well as the direction from which the stimulus comes, the distance to the stimulus, or its duration. This means that these (amodal) qualities such as direction, speed, distance, and intensity are sense independent. Stern (1985/2000) concludes from the studies he cites that the amodal qualities of the senses enable what is known as intersensory or crossmodal perception. Stern discusses the importance of this under the term affect attunement. Parents and babies from around nine months of age frequently use crossmodal matching to communicate an emotional or mood state. The rhythmic enthusiasm with which a baby hits a toy on the ground can be echoed by the parent in sounds that match the rhythm of a tapping movement. In this way, the parent shows that they recognize the baby’s mood. The baby, who can perceive crossmodal matching, feels acknowledged and seen. In addition to rhythm, intensity, direction, and distance are also amodal characteristics of a movement through which an emotional state can be communicated non-verbally. Another aspect of movement is related to the quality of a movement. We cannot describe movements without attributing a quality to them; words like ‘stumbling’ and ‘recovering,’ but also ‘trotting,’ ‘shuffling,’ and ‘striding’112 are not purely descriptive, they tell us something about the (emotional) ‘meaning’ of the movement. Each person has their own unique way of walking by which they are recognized. Stern calls this quality ‘forms of vitality’ in his latest book (Stern, 2010, p. 42). Forms of vitality specify the dynamic nature of a movement. For example, a certain movement, such as that of the arm, can be described as jerky, explosive, undulating, fading, etc. This specific style of movement is unique to each individual and can already be observed in babies. Therefore, one could say that 112 Algra (2020) presents a long list of words that indicate different ways of walking: trotting, striding, strolling, running, sprinting, chasing, rushing, racing, jogging, marching, hurrying, hasting, shuffling, plodding, stepping, flying, following, hiking, wandering, etc.
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