Disambiguating the effects of target travelled distance and target vanishing point upon representational momentum

Abstract

Representational Momentum (RM) was the name given to a phenomenon whereby the last seen position of a suddenly vanished moving target is judged as located further ahead in the direction of movement. We argue in this paper that the role of target travelled distance and of target vanishing position in the modulation of RM have been unduly confounded in previous research. Shortcomings arising from this confounding are noticed and discussed. An experiment that dissociates factorially the effects of these two variables in Michotte-like causal displays as well as in noncausal displays is presented and concludes that vanishing point, not length of travel, is the relevant factor to consider.

Keywords:

• Impetus heuristic
• Motion perception
• Perception of causality
• Representational momentum

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants PPCDT/PSI/60769/2004 and SFRH/BD/36067/2007 from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.