Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Previous research has found that people frequently provideincorrect predictions about the path of moving objects when givenan idealised physics problem to solve. The aim of this research wasto explore whether these incorrect predictions are due to theapplication of an incorrect naïve physics theory, whether incorrectperceptions generated from past experiences lead tomisconceptions of how moving objects behave, or whether it is acombination of both. Thirty-one participants volunteered to takepart in the experiment which followed a two (experiencecongruent/incongruent with naïve physics theory) by two (carriedversus free-moving object) within-subject design. The dependentvariable was participant response (straight down or curvedforwards). Results of the study revealed that participants providedanswers both consistent and inconsistent with the naïve physicstheory. This suggests that responses were primarily elicitedthrough the retrieval of associatively-mediated memories of similarscenarios - some of which contain perceptual illusions. Possiblemethodological limitations and alternative theoretical explanationsare discussed, along with practical and theoretical implications foreducation and learning.