Illusory motion and representational momentum

Percept Psychophys. 2005 Jul;67(5):855-66. doi: 10.3758/bf03193538.

Abstract

When a moving target vanishes abruptly, participants judge its final position as being ahead of its actual final position, in the direction of motion (representational momentum; Freyd & Finke, 1984). In the present study, we presented illusory motion and examined whether or not forward displacement was affected by the perceived direction and speed of the target. Experiments 1A and 1B showed that an illusory direction of movement of a target was perceived, and Experiment 2 showed that an illusory speed of a moving target was observed. However, neither the direction nor the magnitude of forward displacement was affected by these illusions. Therefore, it was suggested that the mechanism underlying forward displacement (or some extrapolation processing) uses different motion signals than does the perceptual mechanism.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Judgment
  • Motion Perception*
  • Optical Illusions*