title: Cognitive representation of motion: evidence for friction and gravity analogues.
abstract: Five experiments examined whether judgments of the locations of horizontally moving targets were influenced by implied friction between the targets and larger stationary surfaces. When targets crashed through a barrier, forward displacement decreased. When targets slid along the upper or lower edge of a single surface, forward displacement decreased. When targets slid along the upper or lower edge of a single surface, forward displacement decreased; when targets slid between the upper and lower edges of different surfaces, forward displacement decreased further. Targets not in contact with a surface exhibited larger forward displacement with greater target velocities, but contact with a surface attenuated or reversed this pattern. When targets slid along the upper edge of a surface, downward displacement increased; when targets slid along the lower edge of a surface, downward displacement reversed. Downward displacements were larger for larger targets, especially after contact with a surface. The data suggest that target representations contain analogues to friction and gravity that influence remembered position.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721.
authors.forename: T L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Hubbard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D017276:Friction; D006112:Gravitation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009039:Motion Perception; D009949:Orientation; D011340:Problem Solving; D011601:Psychophysics