Dynamic Mental Representations (Freyd, 1987)

Dynamic Mental Representations (Freyd, 1987)

Psychological Review 94(4), 427-438

p.427 In this article I will first propose that people perceive dynamic information even when the stimuli being inspected (such as snapshots) are not changing in real time.

p.428 If the perceptual system is geared to perceive transitions in real time, what might it do when presented with a display that is not changing? I propose that in such a situation the perceiver will seek out implicit information about change.

p.429 people can use knowledge of dynamic processes in the perception of static forms.

p.436 it may be... that the perception of all objects depends on knowledge of their possible transformations... the claim [is made] that even the perception of objects at rest involves the mental representation of dynamic information.

p.436 Early in this article I argued that the importance of perceiving dynamic information, which has been recognized by many students of motion and event perception, extends to the perception of stimuli that are not changing in real time. I went on to argue that dynamic information may be crucial to mental representation as well... Thus, even when something is not an event, such as a coffee cup, it might be normally represented as if it could be part of an event, such as a coffee cup falling or being picked up.