Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Measuring Acceleration Due to Gravity

Measuring Acceleration Due to Gravity

Consider a coffee mug hanging on a hook in a pantry. If the mug gets knocked, it oscillates back and forth like a pendulum until the oscillations die out.
A simple pendulum can be described as a point mass and a string. Meanwhile, a physical pendulum is any object whose oscillations are similar to a simple pendulum, but cannot be modeled as a point mass on a string because its mass is distributed over a larger area. The behavior of a physical pendulum can be modeled using the principles of...

Gravity between Spherical Bodies

Gravity between Spherical Bodies

Newton's law of gravitation describes the gravitational force between any two point masses. However, for extended spherical objects like the Earth, the Moon, and other planets, the law holds with an assumption that masses of spherical objects are concentrated at their respective centers.
This assumption can be proved easily by showing that the expression for gravitational potential energy between a hollow sphere of mass (M) and a point mass (m) is the same as it would be for a pair of extended...

Variation in Acceleration due to Gravity near the Earth's Surface

Variation in Acceleration due to Gravity near the Earth's Surface

An object's apparent weight is its weight measured by a spring balance at its location. It is different from its true weight, the force with which the Earth pulls it, because of the Earth's rotation. Mathematically, an object's apparent weight equals its true weight minus the centripetal force that keeps it in a circular motion along with the Earth's surface every 24 hours.
The difference between the true and apparent weights is proportional to the square of the Earth's...

Pole and System Stability

Pole and System Stability

The transfer function is a fundamental concept representing the ratio of two polynomials. The numerator and denominator encapsulate the system's dynamics. The zeros and poles of this transfer function are critical in determining the system's behavior and stability.
Simple poles are unique roots of the denominator polynomial. Each simple pole corresponds to a distinct solution to the system's characteristic equation, typically resulting in exponential decay terms in the system's...

Newton's Law of Gravitation

Newton's Law of Gravitation

Our everyday observation tells us that all objects close to the Earth naturally tend to fall to the ground. Early philosophers assumed that this downward force was unique to Earth. By the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) put forward the heliocentric theory, which suggested that Earth and other planets orbited the sun, while the Moon orbited the Earth. However, it was Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who linked these two motions together in the 17th century. He reasoned that the force of...

Stability of Equilibrium Configuration

Stability of Equilibrium Configuration

Understanding the stability of equilibrium configurations is a fundamental part of mechanical engineering. In any system, there are three distinct types of equilibrium: stable, neutral, and unstable.
A stable equilibrium occurs when a system tends to return to its original position when given a small displacement, and the potential energy is at its minimum. An example of a stable equilibrium is when a cantilever beam is fixed at one end and a weight is attached to the other end. If the weight...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Spatially periodic computation in the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit during navigation.

eLife·2026

Same author

Integrated cognitive screening platform: A multidomain digital tool for rapid screening of mild cognitive impairment.

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD·2026

Same author

Structured interconnectivity optimizes neural geometry for balancing specificity and generalization in object recognition.

Communications biology·2025

Same author

From sensory to perceptual manifolds: The twist of neural geometry.

Science advances·2025

Same author

Encoding of interdependent features of head direction and angular head velocity in navigation.

PNAS nexus·2025

Same author

Object space is embodied.

British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953)·2025

Same journal

Restraint of melanoma progression by cells in the local skin environment.

eLife·2026

Same journal

Brawn before bite in endemic Asian eutherian mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction.

eLife·2026

Same journal

Experimental evolution to thermal stress indicates climate resilience in a cosmopolitan arthropod.

eLife·2026

Same journal

Correlates of protection against African swine fever virus identified by a systems immunology approach.

eLife·2026

Same journal

Retrosplenial cortex enables context-dependent goal-directed sensorimotor transformation.

eLife·2026

Same journal

Direct contact between iPSC-derived macrophages and hepatocytes drives reciprocal acquisition of Kupffer cell identity and hepatocyte maturation.

eLife·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 27, 2025

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Published on: March 3, 2017

A stochastic world model on gravity for stability inference.

Taicheng Huang¹, Jia Liu¹

¹Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences & Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

|May 7, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Humans infer object stability using a mental world model of gravity. This model represents gravity stochastically, not perfectly, explaining stability illusions and aiding flexible environmental interaction.

Keywords:

gravity human intuition neuroscience reinforcement learning simulation stability inference world model

More Related Videos

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models

Published on: November 15, 2013

Postural Organization of Gait Initiation for Biomechanical Analysis Using Force Platform Recordings

Postural Organization of Gait Initiation for Biomechanical Analysis Using Force Platform Recordings

Published on: July 26, 2022

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 27, 2025

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Published on: March 3, 2017

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models

Published on: November 15, 2013

Postural Organization of Gait Initiation for Biomechanical Analysis Using Force Platform Recordings

Postural Organization of Gait Initiation for Biomechanical Analysis Using Force Platform Recordings

Published on: July 26, 2022

Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Neuroscience
Physics

Background:

Humans intuitively understand object stability and gravity.
Previous research suggests a 'world model' aids in mental simulations of physical phenomena.
The precise nature of this internal world model for gravity remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the internal world model of gravity in humans.
To determine how this model represents gravitational forces.
To link the model's characteristics to subjective perceptions of object stability.

Main Methods:

Measured participants' sensitivity to gravity.
Developed a computational model incorporating reinforcement learning.
Compared model predictions with observed human behavior and subjective reports.

Main Results:

The human world model of gravity is not a perfect replica of physical laws.
It encodes gravity's vertical direction as a Gaussian distribution (stochastic representation).
This stochastic model explains subjective stability judgments and the illusion that taller objects are more likely to fall.

Conclusions:

The stochastic nature of the gravity world model likely arises from experience-dependent learning.
This representation balances accuracy and speed for efficient stability inference.
The findings illustrate how a priori knowledge is implemented in the mind for flexible environmental navigation.