Our seamless interaction with the world is no small feat. Packing delicate groceries, stacking glassware, reshuffling precariously balanced cans in a cabinet – each action selected and calibrated based on expectations about its physical consequences. In daily life, we continually form implicit, online physical predictions to guide our decisions and actions, and this process can often feel as effortless as the act of seeing.

What are the mental algorithms that allow us to make split-second assessments of the physical structure and dynamics of our everyday environments? How are they situated within the broader landscapes of perception and cognition?

Our lab studies the architecture of the intuitive physics system the mind and brain using psychophysics, computational modeling, and functional brain imaging.  Check out our Research page to learn more about recent and ongoing projects.

Special issue in Cognitive Neuropsychology:
Intuitive Physics Within the Landscape of the Mind

Check out the recently published special issue of Cognitive Neuropsychology guest edited by Jason.  You can find an overview of the special issue's themes and an introduction to the papers here.  

Special issue contents:

​The building blocks of intuitive physics in the mind and brain
Jason Fischer
​
A role for visual areas in physics simulations
Aarit Ahuja, Theresa M. Desrochers & David L. Sheinberg

What tool representation, intuitive physics, and action have in common: The brain’s first-person physics engine
Jason Fischer & Bradford Z. Mahon

Physical understanding in neurodegenerative diseases
Josselin Baumard, Mathieu Lesourd, Léna Guézouli & François Osiurak

Do capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) use exploration to form intuitions about physical properties?
Eleanor Jade Jordan, Christoph J. Völter & Amanda M. Seed

​Partial mental simulation explains fallacies in physical reasoning
Ilona Bass, Kevin A. Smith, Elizabeth Bonawitz & Tomer D. Ullman

​Naturalistic embodied interactions elicit intuitive physical behaviour in accordance with Newtonian physics
Nils Neupärtl, Fabian Tatai & Constantin A. Rothkopf

​Cochlea to categories: The spatiotemporal dynamics of semantic auditory representations
Matthew X. Lowe, Yalda Mohsenzadeh, Benjamin Lahner, Ian Charest, Aude Oliva & Santani Teng

​Bottom-up and top-down modulation of route selection in imitation
Alessia Tessari, Riccardo Proietti & Raffaella I. Rumiati

​Dynamic Perception Lab in the news:

Dr. Sarah Cormiea's work on human olfaction has recently been featured in a variety of popular media outlets.

You can read more about Sarah's work on how we perceive and identify real-world odors on our Research page.