To estimate object properties such as mass or friction, our brain relies on visual information to efficiently compute approximations. The role of sensorimotor feedback, however, is not well understood. Here we tested healthy adults ( N = 79) in an inclined-plane problem, that is, how much a plane can be tilted before an object starts to slide, and contrasted the interaction group with observation groups who accessed involved forces by watching objects being manipulated. We created objects of different masses and levels of friction and asked participants to estimate the critical tilt angle after pushing an object, lifting it, or both. Estimates correlated with applied forces and were biased toward object mass, with higher estimates for heavier objects. Our findings highlight that inferences about physical object properties are tightly linked to the human sensorimotor system and that humans integrate sensorimotor information even at the risk of nonveridical perceptual estimates.

中文翻译：

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（不）理想的物理学家：人类如何依靠物体相互作用来估计摩擦力

为了估计质量或摩擦力等物体属性，我们的大脑依靠视觉信息来有效地计算近似值。然而，感觉运动反馈的作用尚不清楚。在这里，我们在倾斜平面问题中测试了健康成年人（N = 79），即在物体开始滑动之前平面可以倾斜多少，并将交互组与观察组进行了对比，观察组通过观察物体被移动来获取参与力。被操纵。我们创建了不同质量和摩擦程度的物体，并要求参与者估计推动物体、举起物体或同时推动物体后的临界倾斜角度。估计值与施加的力相关，并且偏向于物体质量，对较重的物体的估计值较高。我们的研究结果强调，对物理对象属性的推论与人类感觉运动系统紧密相关，并且人类即使冒着不真实的感知估计的风险也会整合感觉运动信息。