Changing predictions, stable recognition: Children's representations of downward incline motion

Grounding Intuitive Physics in Perceptual Experience

This review article explores the foundation of laypeople's understanding of the physical world rooted in perceptual experience. Beginning with a concise historical overview of the study of intuitive physics, the article presents the hypothesis that laypeople possess accurate internalized representations of physical laws. A key aspect of this hypothesis is the contention that correct representations of physical laws emerge in ecological experimental conditions, where the scenario being examined resembles everyday life experiences. The article critically examines empirical evidence both supporting and challenging this claim, revealing that despite everyday-life-like conditions, fundamental misconceptions often persist. Many of these misconceptions can be attributed to a domain-general heuristic that arises from the overgeneralization of perceptual-motor experiences with physical objects. To conclude, the article delves into ongoing controversies and highlights promising future avenues in the field of intuitive physics, including action-judgment dissociations, insights from developmental psychology, and computational models integrating artificial intelligence.

Developmental change in predictive motor abilities

Prediction is critical for successful interactions with a dynamic environment. To test the development of predictive processes over the life span, we designed a suite of interceptive tasks implemented as interactive video games. Four tasks involving interactions with a flying ball with titrated challenge quantified spatiotemporal aspects of prediction. For comparison, reaction time was assessed in a matching task. The experiments were conducted in a museum, where over 400 visitors across all ages participated, and in a laboratory with a focused age group. Results consistently showed that predictive ability improved with age to reach adult level by age 12. In contrast, reaction time continued to decrease into late adolescence. Inter-task correlations revealed that the tasks tested different aspects of predictive processes. This developmental progression complements recent findings on cerebellar and cortical maturation. Additionally, these results can serve as normative data to study predictive processes in individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions.

Inferences on enacted understanding: using immersive technologies to assess intuitive physical science knowledge

Purpose

This study aims to advance the proposal to use immersive virtual learning environments to stimulate and reveal deep-seated knowledge about science, giving instructors and researchers unique possibilities for assessing and identifying intuitive physical science knowledge. Aside from the ability to present rich and dynamic stimuli, these environments afford bodily enactment of people’s understanding, which draws less from declarative knowledge stores and more from everyday experiences with the physical world.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors ground their proposal in a critical review of the impact of stimulus and task characteristics of traditional physics inventories. Using a grounded theory approach, the authors present classifications and interpretations of observed bodily enactments of physics understandings in a study where participants enacted their understanding of force and motion of space in an immersive, interactive mixed reality (MR) environment.

Findings

The authors find that instances of these action categories can be interpreted as relating to underlying knowledge, often identified by other studies. The authors thus replicate a number of prior findings, which provide evidence to establish validation for using MR simulation as a tool for identifying people’s physical intuitions.

Research limitations/implications

This study targeted only a few specific physical science scenarios. Further, while a number of key insights about student knowledge came from the analysis, many of the observations are mere leads in need of further investigation and interpretation rather than core findings.

Originality/value

Immersive digital learning environments are primarily used for instruction. The authors propose to use and design them for assessment as well. This paper should prompt more research and development in this direction.

Representational momentum in displacement tasks: Relative object weight matters in toddlers’ search behavior

Various developmental studies have demonstrated that implied object weight is a key variable in children’s interpretations of motion, such as predicting the objects’ speeds. An additional bias in predictions of object motion is representational momentum (RM), where objects are anticipated to be found in a location farther along in the direction of motion from where they actually are. The present study aimed to evaluate when children begin to be sensitive to relative weight in a RM-related search task. Toddlers ( N = 60) aged 2, 2½ and 3 years first visually and manually experienced a heavy ball, a light ball, or both balls at the same time. They then watched one of the balls roll down a ramp and behind a screen with four doors, with a visible barrier placed along the ramp in various positions that would stop the ball’s motion, after which the toddlers were allowed to search for the ball by opening one of the doors. Search accuracy generally increased with age but the accuracy also depended on condition. Relative heaviness in particular led to reduced search accuracy. Further analyses revealed relative heaviness to lead to more searches farther beyond the barrier, adding to the expected RM effect.