Abstract
The present study examined observers’ ability to discriminate canonical and dynamically anomalous collisions that were presented in either frictionless or frictional systems. Whereas previous research has provided qualitative demonstrations that dynamic information can be extracted from visual events, the current study provides a parametric assessment of observers’ sensitivity to dynamic invariants. Our findings indicate that observers are competent when viewing both familiar, terrestrial (frictional) systems and unfamiliar but computationally simpler, 0-G (frictionless) systems. Thus, our sensitivity to these dynamic invariants in visual events is robust in natural systems whose dynamic properties differ from those of the environment in which we evolved and developed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Hume, D. (1961).An enquiry concerning human understanding. New York: Dolphin. (Original work published 1748)
Kaiser, M. K., &Proffitt, D. R. (1984). The development of sensitivity to causally-relevant dynamic information.Child Development,55, 1614–1624.
Levitt, H. (1971). Transformed up-down methods in psychoacoustics.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,49, 467–477.
McKee, S. P. (1981). A local mechanism for differential velocity detection.Vision Research,21, 491–500.
Michotte, A. (1963).The perception of causality. New York: Basic Books.
Runeson, S. (1977).On visual perception of dynamic events. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden.
Shepard, R. N. (1984). Ecological constraints on internal representations: Resonant kinematics of perceiving, imagining, thinking, and dreaming.Psychological Review,91, 417–447.
Todd, J. T., &Warren, W. H. (1982). Visual perception of relative mass in dynamic events.Perception,11, 325–335.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kaiser, M.K., Proffitt, D.R. Observers’ sensitivity to dynamic anomalies in collisions. Perception & Psychophysics 42, 275–280 (1987). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203079
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203079