Smaller = denser, and the brain knows it: natural statistics of object density shape weight expectations.

ABSTRACT: If one nondescript object's volume is twice that of another, is it necessarily twice as heavy? As larger objects are typically heavier than smaller ones, one might assume humans use such heuristics in preparing to lift novel objects if other informative cues (e.g., material, previous lifts) are unavailable. However, it is also known that humans are sensitive to statistical properties of our environments, and that such sensitivity can bias perception. Here we asked whether statistical regularities in properties of liftable, everyday objects would bias human observers' predictions about objects' weight relationships. We developed state-of-the-art computer vision techniques to precisely measure the volume of everyday objects, and also measured their weight. We discovered that for liftable man

SUBMITTER: Peters MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4358826 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature