When objects move, their motion is governed by the laws of physics. We investigated whether multiple objects that move while correctly obeying aspects of Newtonian physics are easier to track than those that do not accurately obey the laws of physics. Participants were asked to track multiple objects that either did or did not take on the correct angles and/or speeds after collisions with each other. We found an advantage for tracking when objects obeyed realistic physics, such that people were more accurate when objects reflected from each other at proper angles and when objects varied in speed after collisions (as opposed to always maintaining the same speed). This advantage was independent of a variety of low-level factors that would be expected to affect object tracking, such as object spacing. However, we also found that performance was not affected when objects' speed changed randomly after each collision (so long as it varied), nor when the reflection angles were jittered moderately after collisions. We conclude that perceptual noise seriously limits many aspects of object trajectory estimation, but nevertheless people are sensitive to at least a subset of the Newtonian laws of physics under demanding attentional tracking conditions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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嘈杂的感知期望：当对象遵循现实物理的特征时，多对象跟踪会带来好处。

当物体运动时，它们的运动受物理定律支配。我们调查了在正确遵守牛顿物理学方面移动的多个物体是否比那些不准确遵守物理定律的物体更容易跟踪。参与者被要求跟踪多个物体，这些物体在相互碰撞后是否具有正确的角度和/或速度。我们发现当物体遵循现实物理时跟踪的优势，当物体以适当的角度相互反射时，当物体在碰撞后速度发生变化（而不是始终保持相同的速度）时，人们会更准确。这种优势与预期会影响对象跟踪的各种低级因素无关，例如对象间距。然而，我们还发现，当每次碰撞后物体的速度随机变化（只要它变化），或者碰撞后反射角度适度抖动时，性能都不会受到影响。我们得出结论，感知噪声严重限制了对象轨迹估计的许多方面，但尽管如此，在要求的注意力跟踪条件下，人们对牛顿物理定律的至少一个子集很敏感。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。但尽管如此，在要求严格的注意力跟踪条件下，人们对牛顿物理定律的至少一个子集是敏感的。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。但尽管如此，在要求的注意力跟踪条件下，人们对牛顿物理定律的至少一个子集是敏感的。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。