Forms of Momentum across Time: Behavioral and Psychological

The cognitive representation of the current action of a stimulus or the current behavior of an organism is often continued (extrapolated) forward in ways that reflect the anticipated subsequent action or behavior of that stimulus or organism. This continuation is found with different types of stimuli, and it is often described as or attributed to a momentum-like effect. Some types of momentum-like effects operate on a brief time-scale and appear primarily spatial, and examples include representational (e.g., Freyd and Finke, 1984), operational (e.g., McCrink, Dehaene, and Dehaene-Lambertz, 2007), and attentional (e.g., Pratt, Spalek, and Bradshaw, 1999). Other types of momentum-like effects operate on a longer time-scale and appear primarily temporal, and examples include (e.g., Nevin, Mandell, and Atak, 1983) and (e.g., Vallerand, Colavecchio, and Pelletier, 1988). The shorter time-scale and more spatial momentum-like effects were reviewed in Hubbard (2014), and the longer time-scale and more temporal momentum-like effects of and are reviewed in this paper. One purpose here is to examine similarities and differences of and and to consider whether these two effects might reflect similar or overlapping mechanisms. A second purpose is to consider whether and are consistent with the notion of dynamic representation.Although and are considered in more detail below, it would be helpful to begin with a brief description of each of these two momentum-like effects. Behavioral and are each based on an analogy with physical momentum. Physical is the product of velocity and mass, and as specified by Newton's laws, an object in motion continues in motion at the same velocity and in the same direction until acted upon by some other force. Behavioral is a tendency for learned behaviors to continue until acted upon by some opposing force (e.g., extinction, satiation); more specifically, involves resistance to change of a learned behavior in which response rate is analogous to velocity and that behavior's resistance to change is analogous to mass. Similarly, is a tendency to believe that a subsequent behavior is more likely to be consistent with previous behavior; more specifically, involves perception of whether success or failure (e.g., winning or losing a game, respectively) is more or less easily achieved as a function of recent success or failure. Behavioral has been most often studied with laboratory animals (mostly pigeons) or behavior analysis of humans (mostly individuals with developmental or learning disorders) in clinical or applied settings, whereas has been most often studied with verbal reports regarding observation of or participation in human sport competition.One conclusion that will be reached is that and reflect similar or overlapping mechanisms. These mechanisms are not tied to a literal physical momentum, but instead reflect a more abstract notion of change in which temporal information is an intrinsic and necessary component of the representation of an action or behavior (cf. the mechanism of representational in Finke, Freyd, and Shyi, 1986; Freyd, 1987). Along these lines, whether the term behavioral momentum or psychological momentum is used often appears to depend on whether the data involve observable behavior or verbal reports of subjective experience. A second conclusion that will be reached is that and involve dynamic representation, and views of dynamic representation that arise from consideration of other momentum-like effects should be expanded to include the longer time-scales of and momentum. …