1996 Toyota Camry Slow and No Take Off

My car has just started doing this. When I'm pressing more firmly on the gas when going up a steep hill to speed up, and sometimes when accererating once I get onto the highway, I can feel three pulls. It feels like somebody is grabbing the front of my car and pulling three firm, even pulls. When this happens, the RPM goes up three times too. The three pulls usually only lasts about 7 secs. It does it pretty qiuck, but not really fast; just three smooth accelerations. I went into a place, and the guy said maybe the fuel filter is clogged, but he looked and didn't see it (the fuel filter) so said it must be in the fuel tank itself. On Wiki Answers, somebody said that it has two fuel filters; one under the hood right under by the driver's door, and one in the gas tank. What should I do? When a car is doing this what is the first thing I should try to correct it? What is the number one things that you've seen that causes this (if you have heard of this!) Obviously I want to start at the small, cheap things and hopefully it's something small and cheap (yea right, not with a car eh?) And I fix it before it gets to something really costly. I know if I take it in then they will have no idea where to start and they'll tell me a few things to buy and fix, but the problem will still happen. That's what happens everytime I go, that's why I am hoping that it's something easier that I could get my dad/brother to do, such as the fuel filter. The guy at the shop where I explained what it was doing said that it was probably the fuel filter being clogged, so I'm only getting spirts of gas, but I don't see how that causes three accererations, but I'm no car person or mechanic. Just so you know, my foot remains totally steady when this happens, but it feels as if I'm reving the gas pedal three times like saying one mississippi two mississippi three mississippi, then it's over. If this was your car what would you do? Thanks a lot for any advice you may (and hopefully!) Have!