Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
Does representational momentum reflect a distortion of the length or the endpoint of a trajectory?
Timothy L Hubbard1, Michael A Motes
1Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA. t.hubbard@tcu.edu
Abstract:
Observers viewed a moving target, and after the target vanished, indicated either the initial position or the final position of the target. In Experiment 1, an auditory tone cued observers to indicate either the initial position or the final position; in Experiment 2, different groups of observers indicated the initial position or the final position. Judgments of the initial position were displaced backward in the direction opposite to motion, and judgments of the final position were displaced forward in the direction of motion. The data suggest that the remembered trajectory is longer than the actual trajectory, and the displacement pattern is not consistent with the hypothesis that representational momentum results from a distortion of memory for the location of a trajectory.
Related Concept Videos
Impulse-Momentum Theorem
By writing Newton's second law of motion in terms of the momentum of an object and the external force acting on it, and simultaneously using the definition of the impulse vector, it can be shown that the total impulse on an object is equal to its net...
Principle of Linear Impulse and Momentum for a Single Particle
Delving into...
Principle of Linear Impulse and Momentum for a System of Particles
Notably, internal forces between particles, occurring in equal and opposite collinear pairs, cancel out and are not part of the equation of motion. This exclusion simplifies the...
Conservation of Linear Momentum for a System of Particles
The impulsive force at play during this interaction is of extremely short duration, rendering its impulse negligible. When...
Principle of Angular Impulse and Momentum: Problem Solving
Initially, a free-body diagram of the system is drawn to illustrate all the forces acting upon the system, providing a crucial understanding of the dynamics at play. Then, the principle of angular impulse and momentum is...
Curves Defined by Parametric Equations

