Explores the basic physics behind pulling a tablecloth out from under a set of dishes, glassware, and utensils without disturbing them. Discusses terminology of Newton's laws of motion and illustrates them using three simple examples. (NB)

Presents a project in which 11th and 12th grade students from a high school Principles of Engineering course instruct 5th grade students in Newton's laws. (KHR)

Used point-light displays (lights corresponding to the joints of the human body) to examine 3-year-olds' understanding of verbs. Found that children could extend familiar motion verbs (walking, dancing) to videotaped point-light actions shown in an intermodal preferential looking paradigm. Children watched the action matching the requested verb…

Students use the relationship between the speed of a ball and the time that a player has to react to it to understand uniform motion problems. Includes activity sheets. (Author/NB)

Discusses the concept of movement first in the broader sense and then seeks an alternative viewpoint on analyzing movement in illustrated children's literature. Emphasizes movement in relation to the characters, inspired by ideas from modern dance. Draws examples from the illustrations and texts of the Moomin books by Finish artist and author Tove…

Responses from 159 primary teachers in the United Kingdom showed that nearly all held views of force and motion that are not in accord with Newtonian physics. Many reflect naive impetus beliefs and do not distinguish between scientific concepts, with implications for the teaching of science. (SK)

Describes a simple setup and procedure that uses "happy/unhappy" balls (two balls with different degrees of elasticity) to lead students into a discussion of momentum transfer involving elastic and inelastic collisions. (ZWH)

This article describes a theory of computations underlying the selection of coordinated motion patterns, especially in reaching tasks. The central idea is that stored postures are evaluated for the contributions they make to reaching a spatial target. The model explains a number of aspects of movement kinematics. (SLD)

Two experiments with 11 college students demonstrate the influence of their prior visual adaptation to motion on the imagined speed of an imaginary moving object. Results suggest that imagined motion and real vision may engage common neural mechanisms without being functionally equivalent. (SLD)

Clarified the developmental processes of awareness of relationships between duration, distance, and speed relative to linear movement. Children began with near awareness of the direct relationships between duration and distance and distance and speed. However, correct grasp of these direct relationships seemed to strengthen an incorrect grasp of…

The major facts of motion perception are summarized, and three major problems regarding motion perception for moving objects, stable environments, and locomotion in a stable environment are elaborated. A hierarchy of motion types is presented. Evidence that the stimulus for motion is relational is considered. (SLD)

Placing psychology in a biological and physical context, James J. Gibson performed prophetic work on visual motion, inspiring more recent studies on higher order aspects of motion encoding. Although not always fully acknowledged, Gibson's work is very important to the development of perceptual psychology. (SLD)

Explored the role of motion versus shape in children's categorization of animal and non-animal kinds. Found that 4-year olds significantly used motion cues over shape cues to categorize objects. Seven-year olds and adults tended to use motion more than shape to categorize animals but not geometric figures. Findings support view that children are…

This study compared role of motion in adults' and infants' perception of object unity. Findings favored ecologically-oriented accounts of object perception. Motion was a determinant of object unity for infants. Alignment and common motion contributed to adults' object-unity perception; synchronous color changes did not. Infants detected…