Alluding to the Transactional Model of Communication, noise can external (e.g. words, sounds) or internal (e.g. anxiety, distraction). Noise is a barrier to clear communication, which in this sense, inhibits the progression of knowledge.

I had to find other references for this phenomenon. The wikipedia page on Einstein's equivalency principle was helpful. As was this pdf with merfeld and zupan Until there is information from other sensory systems, fluid movement in otolith organs cannot disambiguate between a head tilt or a head acceleration.