What Does Physical Rotation Reveal About Mental Rotation?

In a classic psychological science experiment, Shepard and Metzler (1971) discovered that the time participants took to judge whether two rotated abstract block figures were identical increased monotonically with the figures' relative angular disparity. They posited that participants rotate men...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2014-02, Vol.25 (2), p.605-612
Main Authors: Gardony, Aaron L., Taylor, Holly A., Brunyé, Tad T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity levels. Psychomotricity
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Cognition. Intelligence
Error rates
Experiments
Female
Frequency ranges
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Image rotation
Imagination - physiology
Judges
Judgment
Knowledge representation
Male
Mental imagery
Mental imagery. Mental representation
Mental rotation
Motor Activity - physiology
Participant observation
Perceptions
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor activities
Questionnaires
Rangelands
Research Report
Rotation
Sensors
Space Perception - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:In a classic psychological science experiment, Shepard and Metzler (1971) discovered that the time participants took to judge whether two rotated abstract block figures were identical increased monotonically with the figures' relative angular disparity. They posited that participants rotate mental images to achieve a match and that mental rotation recruits motor processes. This interpretation has become central in the literature, but until now, surprisingly few researchers have compared mental and physical rotation. We had participants rotate virtual Shepard and Metzler figures mentally and physically; response time, accuracy, and real-time rotation data were collected. Results suggest that mental and physical rotation processes overlap and also reveal novel conclusions about physical rotation that have implications for mental rotation. Notably, participants did not rotate figures to achieve a match, but rather until they reached an off-axis canonical difference, and rotational strategies markedly differed for judgments of whether the figures were the same or different.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797613503174