MIT's 10-year study uses impact sounds to reveal how humans perceive physics by ear
JoshHMcDermott · x · 2026-11-10
A new paper from MIT's McDermott lab (first authors Vin Agarwal and James Traer) uses the perception of impact sounds as a window onto audio-based "intuitive physics" in human hearing.
The authors illustrate the difficulty with a sample task: hearing two balls drop onto different surfaces and judging which is heavier — each sound is produced by two unknown objects, making the problem ill-posed, yet humans make reasonable inferences. The paper releases impulse responses, a generative model, and experimental approaches; data and code are open-sourced. McDermott notes it was a 10-year project and credits the two first authors' care and technical expertise.
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