MEMORY FOR POSITION AND DYNAMIC REPRESENTATIONS

Memory for the position of an object is biased. When asked to judge wh ether an object has changed its position with respect to a position sh own a few milliseconds before, observers tend to detect the displaceme nt more often when the displacement is not in the expected direction ( downward for a falling object). The hypothesis proposed by Freyd (1983 , 1987) states that the internal representation of an object is intrin sically dynamic. Therefore, the forces perceived as acting on the obje ct affect the representation. Quantitative predictions of this model w ere tested in three experiments by measuring memory distortion for the position of an object on an inclined plane. Angle of inclination and retention interval were varied. The results for different inclinations support the physical model. The time course of the memory distortion suggests a new view about the relation between this phenomenon and ver y short-term memory.