REPRESENTATIONAL MOMENTUM, FLASH-LAG, AND MOTION CAPTURE

Abstract

When a stationary object was aligned with the middle of a moving target’s trajectory, observers’ memory for the location of that stationary object was not displaced; memory for the location of the target at the time the stationary object was presented was displaced backward (i.e., in the direction opposite to target motion), and memory for the final location of the target was displaced forward (i.e., in the direction of target motion). When a stationary object was aligned with the end of a moving target’s trajectory, observers’ memory for the location of the stationary object was displaced forward, and displacement increased with increases in target velocity and decreased with increases in the distance of the stationary object from the moving target. It is suggested that representational momentum for the moving target made the target appear in front of the stationary object when the stationary object was presented before the end of target motion (thus accounting for the flash-lag effect), and that residual spreading activation from the moving target displaced the memory for the stationary object forward when the stationary object was presented at the end of target motion (thus accounting for motion capture).