Abstract
Memory for the position of a moving target is often displaced in the direction of anticipated motion, and this has been referred to as representational momentum. Such displacement might aid spatial localization by bridging the gap between perception and action, and might reflect a second-order isomorphism between subjective consequences of environmentally invariant physical principles and the functional architecture of mental representation that can be modulated by an observer’s expectations (e.g., that a moving target will change its heading) or by the presence of nontarget stimuli (e.g., landmarks). Representational momentum and related types of displacement reflect properties of the world and properties of mental representation, and so a consideration of representational momentum and related types of displacement contribute an important component of contemporary psychophysics, and also broaden the reach of psychophysics to include numerous topics not usually considered within psychophysics (e.g., naive physics, boundary extension, flash-lag effect, aesthetics, mental imagery).