Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

In this paper we introduce the hypothetical simulation model(HSM) of physical support. The HSM predicts that peoplejudge physical support by mentally simulating what wouldhappen if the object of interest were removed. Two experi-ments test the model by asking participants to evaluate the ex-tent to which one brick in a tower is responsible for the restof the bricks staying on a table. The results of both experi-ments show a very close correspondence between hypotheticalsimulations and responsibility judgments. We compare threeversions of the HSM which differ in how they model people’suncertainty about what would happen. Participants’ selectionsof which bricks would fall are best explained by assumingthat hypothetical interventions only lead to local changes whileleaving the rest of the scene unchanged.