Cf. Michaels et Mm. Devries, HIGHER-ORDER AND LOWER ORDER VARIABLES IN THE VISUAL-PERCEPTION OF RELATIVE PULLING FORCE, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 24(2), 1998, pp. 526-546
In 7 experiments, undergraduates judged the force exerted by a videota
ped standing puller, a computer-generated (stick-figure) puller, or a
computer-generated inverted pendulum. Single and stepwise multiple reg
ression analyses determined the kinematic variables exploited by the p
articipants. Results show that (a) judgments correlated highly with fo
rce and improved with feedback; (b) judgments correlated more highly w
ith lower order kinematic variables than with force itself; (c) partic
ipants differed in the kinematic variables exploited; (d) participants
changed over blocks of trials in the variables exploited; (e) some pa
rticipants used compound kinematic variables; (f) the variables exploi
ted depended on the type of feedback; and (g) judgments to upright pul
lers, inverted pullers, and simple pendula showed the same qualitative
patterns. Implications for theories of direct perception, directed pe
rception, and heuristics are considered.