Representational momentum for a spiral path.
When a ball is shot through a spiral tube at high speed, the ball emerges in a straight path tangent to the ball's point of departure from the tube. However, past research has shown that many Ss believe the ball follows a curved pathway. In the 3 experiments described in this article, a ball traveling through a spiral tube was animated on a computer graphics screen. Ss' memory distortions for positions of the ball along each of 3 pathways were measured using a representational momentum paradigm. Retention interval was varied across the 3 experiments. The results from the 3 experiments reported here replicate retention interval results previously reported for representational momentum effects, and they suggest that the representational pathway of a ball exiting a spiral tube is spiral in shape. These findings may shed some light on why people have demonstrated naiveté on the spiral tube problem in past research.
Freyd
J J
JJ
Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403.
Jones
K T
KT
D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D009039:Motion Perception; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires