Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

In the Michotte (1963) launching scenario, an object (X) moves toward a resting object (Y), eventually colliding withit. In the moment of contact, X stops und Y starts moving - creating the strong impression that X caused Y’s motion and that Xexerted a force on Y (but not vice versa). These asymmetries contradict the (symmetrical) laws of Newtonian mechanics, whichare at the heart of the popular “noisy Newton” theories of intuitive physics. As an alternative, we propose that inferences inphysical scenarios operate over pre-Newtonian representations that are based on the asymmetrical concept of impetus, a motiveforce that keeps objects moving and that is transferred and reflected in object collisions. We present a formal model of impetusand show that, unlike noisy Newton theories, it provides an explanation of asymmetrical judgments. Other related findings canalso be modeled (e.g., biases in mass judgments).