Are attentional momentum and representational momentum related?

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn attentional momentum, detection of a target further ahead in the direction of an ongoing attention shift is faster than detection of a target an equal distance in an orthogonal direction. In representational momentum, memory for the location of a previously viewed target is displaced in the direction of target motion. Hubbard [Hubbard, T. L. (2014). Forms of momentum across space: Representational, operational, and attentional. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21(6), 1371–1403; Hubbard, T. L. (2015). The varieties of momentum-like experience. Psychological Bulletin, 141(6), 1081–1119] hypothesized that attentional momentum and representational momentum might be related or reflect the same mechanism or similar mechanisms. Two experiments collected measures of attentional momentum and representational momentum. In Experiment 1, attentional momentum based on differences between detecting targets opposite or orthogonal to a cued location was not correlated with representational momentum based on M displacement for the final location of a target. In Experiment 2, attentional momentum based on facilitation in detecting a gap on a probe presented in front of the final target location was not correlated with representational momentum based on a weighted mean of the probabilities of a same response in probe judgments of the final target location. Implications of the findings for the relationship of attentional momentum and representational momentum, and for theories of momentum-like effects in general, are considered.KEYWORDS: Attentional momentumrepresentational momentumdisplacementspatial representation AcknowledgementThe authors thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on a previous version of the manuscript.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Durations of the different stages of a trial differed slightly from those in Pratt et al. (Citation1999) to ensure that timing in the attentional momentum task was consistent with timing in the representational momentum task.2 Hubbard (Citation2019) suggested that an understanding of momentum-like processes needed to consider all of Marr’s (Citation1982) levels of analysis. Accordingly, although attentional momentum and representational momentum appear similar at the level of computational theory (i.e., both facilitate processing of spatial information expected to be present in the near future and both involve displacement across space, Hubbard, Citation2014, Citation2015), the current data suggest attentional momentum and representational momentum could be different at the level of representation and algorithm or the level of implementation (i.e., involve different mechanisms).