Intuitive physics and cognitive algebra: A review

One of the most important tasks for humans is the attribution of causes and effects in all wakes of life. The first systematical study of visual perception of causality—often referred to as phenomenal causality—was done by Albert Michotte using his now well-known launching events paradigm. Launching events are the seeming collision and seeming transfer of movement between two objects—abstract, featureless stimuli (“objects”) in Michotte’s original experiments. Here, we study the relation between causal ratings for launching events in Michotte’s setting and launching collisions in a photorealistically computer-rendered setting. We presented launching events with differing temporal gaps, the same launching processes with photorealistic billiard balls, as well as photorealistic billiard balls with realistic motion dynamics, that is, an initial rebound of the first ball after collision and a short sliding phase of the second ball due to momentum and friction. We found that providing the normal launching stimulus with realistic visuals led to lower causal ratings, but realistic visuals together with realistic motion dynamics evoked higher ratings. Two-dimensional versus three-dimensional presentation, on the other hand, did not affect phenomenal causality. We discuss our results in terms of intuitive physics as well as cue conflict.

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Intuitive physics and intuitive psychology (“theory of mind”) in offspring of mothers with psychoses

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.330 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. e330 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Rebeka Maróthi ◽

Szabolcs Kéri

Keyword(s):

Theory Of Mind ◽

Intuitive Physics ◽

Psychology Theory

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Intuitive physics and intuitive psychology (“theory of mind”) in offspring of mothers with psychoses

10.7287/peerj.preprints.248 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Rebeka Marothi ◽

Szabolcs Keri

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Motor Performance ◽

Folk Psychology ◽

Mental States ◽

Social Adaptation ◽

Abnormal Development ◽

Folk Physics ◽

Intuitive Physics ◽

Psychology Theory

Offspring of individuals with psychoses sometimes display an abnormal development of cognition, language, motor performance, social adaptation, and emotional functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of children of mothers with schizophrenia (n=28) and bipolar disorder (n=23) to understand mental states of others using the Eyes Test (folk psychology or “theory of mind”) and physical causal interactions of inanimate objects (folk psychics). Compared with healthy controls (n=29), the children of mothers with schizophrenia displayed significantly impaired performances on the Eyes Test but not on the folk physics test. The children of mothers with bipolar disorder did not differ from the controls and outperformed the children of mothers with schizophrenia on the folk physics test. These results suggest that the attribution of mental states, but not the interpretation of causal interaction of objects, is impaired in offspring of individuals with schizophrenia, which may contribute to social dysfunctions.

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Physics Education in a Virtual Environment

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193129303701818 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 37 (18) ◽

pp. 1286-1290 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

John W. Brelsford

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Physics Education ◽

Physical World ◽

Educational Tool ◽

Training Method ◽

Retention Period ◽

Physics Instruction ◽

Hands On ◽

Intuitive Physics ◽

Computer Aided Learning

A study is directed at a comparison of Virtual Reality as an educational tool in physics instruction with standard, teacher-organized, or computer-aided learning. Findings generally indicated that virtual reality-based learning is superior to lecture-based control conditions. The dependent variable was a residualized knowledge of physics measure obtained from subjects four weeks following termination of training. As a training method, virtual reality was superior to the control condition at the four-week retention period. Such a finding supports cognitive theorists who argue that the lack of opportunities for hands-on, manipulation of objects in the physical world is one of the reasons children are often poor at intuitive physics. Virtual reality provides them the opportunity to develop manipulational skills they did not previously possess.

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Stable individual differences in infants’ responses to violations of intuitive physics

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2103805118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (27) ◽

pp. e2103805118

Author(s):

Jasmin Perez ◽

Lisa Feigenson

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Prediction Errors ◽

Expectancy Violations ◽

Infant Research ◽

Expected Outcome ◽

Intuitive Physics ◽

Violation Of Expectation ◽

Expected Outcomes ◽

Better Than

Infants look longer at impossible or unlikely events than at possible events. While these responses to expectancy violations have been critical for understanding early cognition, interpreting them is challenging because infants’ responses are highly variable. This variability has been treated as an unavoidable nuisance inherent to infant research. Here we asked whether the variability contains signal in addition to noise: namely, whether some infants show consistently stronger responses to expectancy violations than others. Infants watched two unrelated physical events 6 mo apart; these events culminated in either an impossible or an expected outcome. We found that infants who exhibited the strongest looking response to an impossible event at 11 mo also exhibited the strongest response to an entirely different impossible event at 17 mo. Furthermore, violation-of-expectation responses in infancy predicted children’s explanation-based curiosity at 3 y old. In contrast, there was no longitudinal relation between infants’ responses to events with expected outcomes at 11 and 17 mo, nor any link with later curiosity; hence, infants’ responses do not merely reflect individual differences in attention but are specific to expectancy violations. Some children are better than others at detecting prediction errors—a trait that may be linked to later cognitive abilities.

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Limits on Simulation Approaches in Intuitive Physics

10.31234/osf.io/xhzuc ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ethan Ludwin-Peery ◽

Neil R Bramley ◽

Ernest Davis ◽

Todd Matthew Gureckis

Keyword(s):

Mental Simulation ◽

Simulation Approach ◽

Apparent Contradiction ◽

Physical Reasoning ◽

Human Ability ◽

Intuitive Physics

A popular explanation of the human ability for physical reasoning is that it depends on a sophisticated ability to perform mental simulations. According to this perspective, physical reasoning problems are approached by repeatedly simulating relevant aspects of a scenario, with noise, and making judgments based on aggregation over these simulations. In this paper, we describe three core tenets of simulation approaches, theoretical commitments that must be present in order for a simulation approach to be viable. The identification of these tenets threatens the plausibility of simulation as a theory of physical reasoning, because they appear to be incompatible with what we know about cognition more generally. To investigate this apparent contradiction, we describe three experiments involving simple physical judgments and predictions, and argue their results challenge these core predictions of theories of mental simulation.

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Sex Differences in Two Fundamental Cognitive Domains

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000058 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 24-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Akio Wakabayashi ◽

Junko Sasaki ◽

Youji Ogawa

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Elementary School Children ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Cognitive Styles ◽

Cognitive Domain ◽

Test Results ◽

Cognitive Domains ◽

The Social ◽

Intuitive Physics ◽

The Relationship

Prior research indicates that, on average, females are superior at tasks concerned with the social cognitive domain, whereas males are superior at tasks concerned with physical cognitive domains. The empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory explains these differences by proposing two independent cognitive drives: empathizing and systemizing. The present study explores sex differences and the relationship between these cognitive domains. Participants were 267 elementary school children (mean age = 9.8) and 102 university students (mean age = 20.7) who performed two tasks: the Eyes test and the intuitive physics test. Results showed that females scored higher than males on the Eyes test in both participant groups, whereas no marked sex differences appeared in the intuitive physics test. Distributions of cognitive styles, derived from performance differences in the two tasks, showed marked sex differences, and correlations between performances in the two tasks were near zero in both groups, were consistent with E-S theory.

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