The Anticipation Processes: Towards a Unified Model

Anticipation has the character to encompass all contexts, all individuals, at all times. However, there is currently no model that accounts for this universal nature of anticipation. Therefore, the objective of this article is to propose a unified model of anticipation by bringing together various anticipatory phenomena. The study of visuospatial anticipation (representational momentum) demonstrates that individuals memorize the spatial position of a dynamic situation further than it actually is in the direction of its dynamics. The underlying processes of this anticipatory phenomenon are perceptual, cognitive, and action-related, thus possessing a universal character. An original modeling of this anticipatory phenomenon is first proposed and then used to develop the Unified Anticipation Model, which integrates other anticipatory phenomena traditionally studied in entirely distinct theoretical frameworks (i.e., arithmetic anticipation, associative learning-based anticipation, causal anticipation, and strategic anticipation).