Modeling Human Intuitions about Liquid Flow (Exp 2)

Participants viewed images of virtual scenes with liquid above obstacle courses (3 simple shapes: triangles, squares, circles) and predicted what percentage of the liquid would end up in a cup at the bottom of the scene. Each participant saw 60 water trials and 60 honey trials (within-subjects design). Honey trials were mirrored with respect to water trials to prevent recognition. A practice phase with video feedback preceded the test phase.

Study Information

Citation

Bates, C. J., Yildirim, I., Tenenbaum, J. B., & Battaglia, P. (2019). Modeling human intuitions about liquid flow with particle-based simulation. PLOS Computational Biology, 15(7), e1007210. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007210

Focus Areas:
Intuitive PhysicsPhysical PredictionFluid Dynamics
Status:ACTIVE