Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Physics education and psychology research have found novices struggle to accurately predict the trajectory of objects,and perception research has found people cannot perceptually differentiate between plausible and implausible collisionoutcomes. Prior research focused on single force interactions, we explored predictions and perception of both one andtwo force interactions. Participants (N = 111) drew predicted paths of balls acted upon by a single force, two forcesacting simultaneously, and two forces acting sequentially. Paths were categorized into: correct, curved, single forcedominant, inaccurate angle, first force dominant, and recent force dominant. Participants also made perceptual naturalnessand animacy ratings for animations portraying accurate solutions and high frequency alternate conceptions. Preliminaryresults suggest participants were accurate for forces aligned on one dimension, and less accurate for forces not aligned onone dimensionparticipants anticipated curved paths, paths taking an inaccurate angle, and paths aligned with only one ofthe forces.