motor strongprocessesstrong in mental rotation - cogprints.pdfVIP

C O G N I T I O N Cognition 68 (1998) 77–94 Motor processes in mental rotation a , b a Mark Wexler *, Stephen M. Kosslyn , Alain Berthoz a ` Laboratoire de la Physiologie de la Perception et de l’Action, CNRS/College de France, Paris, France bDepartment of Psychology, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA Received 18 April 1997; accepted 5 May 1998 Abstract Much indirect evidence supports the hypothesis that transformations of mental images are at least in part guided by motor processes, even in the case of images of abstract objects rather than of body parts. For example, rotation may be guided by processes that also prime one to see results of a specific motor action. We directly test the hypothesis by means of a dual-task paradigm in which subjects perform the Cooper–Shepard mental rotation task while executing an unseen motor rotation in a given direction and at a previously-learned speed. Four results support the inference that mental rotation relies on motor processes. First, motor rotation that is compatible with mental rotation results in faster times and fewer errors in the imagery task than when the two rotations are incompatible. Second, the angle through which subjects rotate their mental images, and the angle through which they rotate a joystick handle are correlated, but only if the directions of the two rotations are compatible. Third, motor rotation modifies the classical inverted V-shaped mental rotation response time function, favoring the direction of the motor rotation; indeed, in some cases motor rotation even sh