Material quality ratings and prior attraction. Results of the first frame and motion conditions from
Figure 5 are replotted, keeping the same symbols and notation. (A) Average observer ratings from three conditions (i.e., first frame familiar objects [
filled circles], typically behaving familiar objects [
unfilled circles] and corresponding [
moving] novel objects [
unfilled stars]) tended to overlap. The difference between first frame ratings for familiar objects and ratings of moving novel objects is indicated by a
dark grey line. The organization of objects follows that in (B). (B) Same as (A), but here, ratings of atypically behaving familiar objects are plotted as
unfilled circles (organized by type of motion), and ratings of corresponding novel objects—that is, unfamiliar shapes—which inherit their optical and kinematic qualities from a familiar object—as
unfilled stars. The motions are arranged according to how much the object remains intact and recognizable after impact on the floor (also see
Supplementary Fig. 4).
Yellow highlighted symbols show a statistically significant prior pull. See main text for more detail. The yellow highlighted cases show that prior pull occurred more in conditions where the object was still intact and recognizable at the end of the movie (objects that behaved rigidly or wobbled).
Supplementary Table 1 lists corresponding statistics and
P values. (C, i) How we measure how much the rating of an atypically moving familiar object (
middle) overlaps with the rating of a material-matched moving novel object (
right), or conversely, how much it is pulled toward ratings of a static view of the familiar object (
left). (C, ii) Possible results. For example, seeing an image of red Jell-O in its classical shape, observers tend to expect that it is quite gelatinous. When they see an object with the same optical properties that falls and does not wobble when it hits the floor, they rate it as very nongelatinous, that is, we have a large rating difference (
gray line). When a classically shaped red Jell-O falls on the floor and does not wobble, observers could either rate it similar to the novel object—after all it does not wobble at all (no prior pull)—or it could be rated as somewhat more gelatinous, despite the sensory input, possibly because prior experience influences the appearance, making observers perceive wobble when there is not (prior pull,
red line). (C, iii) When the familiar object moves exactly as expected, and when there is no strong influence of shape familiarity on material judgements, all three ratings will overlap.