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

ABSTRACT: When 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 characteri

SUBMITTER: Pastukhov A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8522868 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature