Simulation as an engine of physical scene understanding
Name
Battaglia-2013-Simulation as an eng.pdf
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1.02 MB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Battaglia, Peter W.
Hamrick, Jessica B.
Tenenbaum, Joshua B.
Date Issued
November 2013
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Battaglia, P. W., J. B. Hamrick, and J. B. Tenenbaum. “Simulation as an Engine of Physical Scene Understanding.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 45 (November 5, 2013): 18327–18332.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In a glance, we can perceive whether a stack of dishes will topple, a branch will support a child’s weight, a grocery bag is poorly packed and liable to tear or crush its contents, or a tool is firmly attached to a table or free to be lifted. Such rapid physical inferences are central to how people interact with the world and with each other, yet their computational underpinnings are poorly understood. We propose a model based on an “intuitive physics engine,” a cognitive mechanism similar to computer engines that simulate rich physics in video games and graphics, but that uses approximate, probabilistic simulations to make robust and fast inferences in complex natural scenes where crucial information is unobserved. This single model fits data from five distinct psychophysical tasks, captures several illusions and biases, and explains core aspects of human mental models and common-sense reasoning that are instrumental to how humans understand their everyday world.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1306572110
