The pointedness effect on representational momentum

An observer's memory for the final position of a moving object is shifted f orward in the direction of that object's motion. It is called representatio nal momentum (RM). This study addressed stimulus-specific effects on RM. In Experiment 1, participants showed larger memory shift for an object moving in its typical direction of motion than when it moved in a nontypical dire ction of motion. In Exper iment 2, participants indicated larger memory shi ft for a pointed pattern moving in the direction of its point than when it moved in the opposite direction. In Experiment 3, we again examined the inf luences of knowledge about objects' typical motions and the pointedness of objects, because we did not control the shape (pointedness) of objects in E xperiment 1. The results showed that only pointedness affected the magnitud e of memory shift and that the effect was smaller than the momentum effect.