scholarly journals When perception is stronger than physics: Perceptual similarities rather than laws of physics govern the perception of interacting objects

Author(s):  
Alexander Pastukhov ◽  
Lisa Koßmann ◽  
Claus-Christian Carbon

AbstractWhen several multistable displays are viewed simultaneously, their perception is synchronized, as they tend to be in the same perceptual state. Here, we investigated the possibility that perception may reflect embedded statistical knowledge of physical interaction between objects for specific combinations of displays and layouts. We used a novel display with two ambiguously rotating gears and an ambiguous walker-on-a-ball display. Both stimuli produce a physically congruent perception when an interaction is possible (i.e., gears counterrotate, and the ball rolls under the walker’s feet). Next, we gradually manipulated the stimuli to either introduce abrupt changes to the potential physical interaction between objects or keep it constant despite changes in the visual stimulus. We characterized the data using four different models that assumed (1) independence of perception of the stimulus, (2) dependence on the stimulus’s properties, (3) dependence on physical configuration alone, and (4) an interaction between stimulus properties and a physical configuration. We observed that for the ambiguous gears, the perception was correlated with the stimulus changes rather than with the possibility of physical interaction. The perception of walker-on-a-ball was independent of the stimulus but depended instead on whether participants responded about a relative motion of two objects (perception was biased towards physically congruent motion) or the absolute motion of the walker alone (perception was independent of the rotation of the ball). None of the two experiments supported the idea of embedded knowledge of physical interaction.

Author(s):  
Robert Rynasiewicz

In the Scholium to the Definitions at the beginning of the Principia, Newton distinguishes absolute time, space, place, and motion from their relative counterparts. He argues that they are indeed ontologically distinct, in that the absolute quantity cannot be reduced to some particular category of the relative, as Descartes had attempted by defining absolute motion to be relative motion with respect to immediately ambient bodies. Newton’s rotating bucket experiment, rather than attempting to show that absolute motion exists, is one of five arguments from the properties, causes, and effects of motion. These arguments attempt to show that no such program can succeed, and thus that true motion can be adequately analyzed only by invoking immovable places, that is, the parts of absolute space.


1974 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter C. Gogel

The perception of motion of physically moving points of light was investigated in terms of the distinction between absolute and relative motion cues and the change in the effectiveness of the latter as a function of the frontoparallel separation between the points. In situations in which two competing relative motion cues were available to determine the perceived path of motion of a point of light, it was found that the relative motion cue between more adjacent points was more effective than the relative motion cue between more separated points. In situations in which only one relative motion cue was available to determine the perceived motion of a point it was found that the effectiveness of this cue as compared with the absolute motion cue decreased with increased separation. These results are predictable from the adjacency principle which states that the effectiveness of cues between objects is an inverse function of object separation. Some consequences of the study for the theory of motion perception are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Wessel ◽  
◽  
Guillaume Bodinier ◽  
Clinton P. Conrad
Keyword(s):  

1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (21) ◽  
pp. 2233-2241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisèle Goulard

Given a sequential reaction at low energies A + B → C* → D + G* → D + E + F, we previously derived a cross-section formula which corresponds to the detection of two final-state particles. In this expression of σL some energy-dependent terms appear which are related to the relative motion of D–G* and E–F. In this paper, we study their influence on the absolute value of σL for the special reaction 11B + p → 3α at incident energies of 2.65 MeV and 163 keV and also the variations of σL with the parameters of α–α scattering.


Author(s):  
S Pylypaks ◽  
A Chepignyi

The crank pivotally linked to the mechanism link for most planar mechanisms is a driven link. The junction point of the crank and the slave link describes the circle as it is rotated. In the article, we propose to place the apex of the triangles at the point of connection. In this case, we will direct the principal normal normal to the center of the circle, and arrange the tangent tangent tangent to the circle (combine with the velocity vector of the crank). Based on this location, the crank will also rotate when rotating the crank, with the main normal being the same as the crank. The trajectories and speed of the crank in a circle will depend on the angular speed of rotation of the crank. The basic idea of the article is to find the kinematic characteristics of the motion of the junction point of the crank and the driven link, when it makes relative motion in the coordinate system, and the moving system moves relatively stationary under a certain law. Thus the rotation of the driven link around the apex of the triangles and the movement together with it determines the motion of the driven link with respect to the fixed coordinate system. The position of the guided link is in the projections on the triangular orths and is converted to the axis of the fixed system. In the same way, we find the absolute trajectory of movement of the point of the link, which in turn allows us to determine the speed and acceleration of the same point. The dependencies obtained are common to the driven links of the mechanism pivotally connected to the crank. For each mechanism it is only necessary to find the law of rotation of the driven link in the system of rolling triangles. We give some examples of finding the law of the rotation of the driven link for some mechanisms, as well as graphs of change of speed and acceleration of individual points of the driven link.


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