Representational momentum: effects of symbolic meaning on perception of movement

Regarding the perception of movement, there exists a phenomenon called ‘representational momentum’, in which one’s memory of the last location of a moving object is displaced further along its trajectory. Like many other perceptual phenomena, there has been evidence that representational momentum (RM) is influenced by the object’s symbolic meaning. In particular, in a study by Reed and Vinson, it has been shown that our pre-existing knowledge of an object’s typical direction and speed of movement can affect the magnitude of RM generated. Objects with larger typical speed (for example, a rocket) generated a larger RM effect than objects with no typical speed (for example, a church). In this thesis, I attempted to replicate the results found in Reed and Vinson 1996’s study by using the same set of stimuli on 24 participants. The stimulus traveled continuously, unidirectionally along a vertical trajectory before disappearing then reappearing, and the participants were instructed to compare the relative points of disappearance with points of reappearance. Analyses found no effect of RM for either stimuli. However, an effect of symbolic meaning was observed, as the stimulus with larger typical speed (the rocket) yielded less forward displacement along the moving trajectory than the stimulus with no typical speed (the church). These results support the idea that symbolic meaning has an impact on movement perception, while providing contrasting evidence on the direction in which this impact with Reed and Vinson’s observations. The disparity in results compared to Reed and Vinson’s 1996 study also suggests a number of potentially key influential factors in investigating the effects of symbolic meaning on perception of movement, including experimental paradigms’ properties and participants’ perceptual illusions.