Naive physics alters time-to-passage judgments(Summary of Awarded Presentation at the 25th Annual Meeting)

抄録

In a time-to-passage (TTP) paradigm the observers were asked to estimate the time for a moving target to pass through a pre-determined landmark. A circular target smoothly moved in a linear path and was gradually occluded by a static rectangular screen. Additionally, a luminance border parallel to the motion path was presented as a pictorial cue indicating a ground surface. Since the motion path was oblique (+45 or - 45 degrees) or horizontal, the target appeared as if it descended, ascended, or translated on the ground. As a result, when the target always contacted the solid line the TTP was significantly shorter while descending than while ascending. On the other hand, when the target was slightly away from the border, no significant effect of the slope of the motion path on the TTP was obtained. The results indicated that different motion impressions caused by naive physics affected the TTP judgments.