Gravity prior in human behaviour: a perceptual or semantic phenomenon?

Gallagher, Maria, Torok, Agoston, Klaas, Johanna and Ferrè, Elisa Raffaella 2020. Gravity prior in human behaviour: a perceptual or semantic phenomenon? Experimental Brain Research 238 , pp. 1957-1962. 10.1007/s00221-020-05852-5

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Abstract

Humans show a gravitational advantage in perception: we are more precise at judging the speed of downwards-moving than upwards-moving objects, indicating that gravitational acceleration is an internalised prior. However, it is unclear whether this gravity prior is based on purely perceptual cues or whether it can incorporate semantic knowledge. Previous research has used only objects which are known to comply with gravity, possibly confounding semantic and perceptual cues. Here we have addressed this question by asking participants to judge the speed of objects that typically move coherently with gravity (ball) or against it (rocket). Our results showed a perceptual advantage for falling stimuli, irrespective of object identity, suggesting the gravity prior is based on perceptual cues.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	Springer Verlag (Germany)
ISSN:	0014-4819
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 October 2020
Date of Acceptance:	10 June 2020
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 20:41
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/135686

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