The Effect of Implied Mass on Representational Momentum: Negative Evidence from a Two-Body Collision Paradigm

The phenomenon of representational momentum (RM) refers to distortions of visual memory for the final position of an object whenever the object is preceded by a series of displays that imply smooth transformations of the object in the picture plane. Past research has demonstrated that the magnitude of memory distortion observed in RM is closedly related to kinematic factors such as implied velocity and acceleration depicted in the inducing displays, suggesting that, as a mental analogue to physical momentum, RM may arise from an internalisation of regularities governing the physical world. It is not clear, however, whether or not RM is equally affected by regularities in the kinetic or dynamic domain (eg mass).

We examined this issue in three experiments, using a two-body collision paradigm. The impression of the implied mass was created by simulating the collision of a moving ball of less mass with a stationary ball of greater mass. Although subjects were able to experience and report momentary sensation of objects with different mass, such impressions were not carried over to affect the magnitude of memory distortions in the subsequent RM task where those objects were used as inducing displays. These results imply that the sensation of mass cannot be reliably sustained over a long period by visual information, and as a consequence RM revealed by distortions of visual memory is not affected by implied mass.