Intuitive physical reasoning about objects’ masses transfers to a visuomotor decision task consistent with Newtonian physics
Fig 9
Bayesian model for learning through observing collisions with prior and posterior mass beliefs.
The left panel shows inferred posterior mass beliefs for the pucks from feedback phase 2 for each participant. All 100 trials were used to infer the mass beliefs. These posteriors were used as priors for the inference from observations. The graphical model for learning by observing collision is shown in the middle panel. Uncertainty about the pucks’ velocities is introduced for the initial velocities vF and vNF as well as for the resulting velocities uF and uNF after the elastic collision. Utilizing the physical relationship of velocities and masses in an elastic collision enables inferring beliefs about the unknown puck based on previous mass beliefs of pucks in phase 2. Resulting posterior mass beliefs are shown in the right panel for inferences based on 6 and 24 observations of collisions.