Mental rotation of letters, body parts and scenes during whole-body tilt: role of a body-centered versus a gravitational reference frame

Otmar L Bock, Marc Dalecki

    Publication: Contribution to journalJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    It is known that in mental-rotation tasks, subjects mentally transform the displayed material until it appears "upright" and then make a judgment. Here we evaluate, by using three typical mental rotation tasks with different degrees of embodiment, whether "upright" is coded to a gravitational or egocentric reference frame, or a combination of both. Observers stood erect or were whole-body tilted by 60°, with their left ear down. In either posture, they saw stimuli presented at different orientation angles in their frontal plane: in condition LETTER, they judged whether the stimuli were normal or mirror-reversed letters, in condition HAND whether they represented a left or a right hand, and in condition SCENE whether a weapon laid left or right in front of a displayed person. Data confirm that reaction times are modulated by stimulus orientation angle, and the modulation curve in LETTER and HAND differs from that in SCENE. More importantly, during 60° body tilt, the modulation curve shifted 12° away from the gravitational towards the egocentric vertical reference; this shift was comparable in all three conditions and independent of the degree of embodiment. We conclude that mental rotation in all conditions relied on a similar spatial reference, which seems to be a weighted average of the gravitational and the egocentric vertical, with a higher weight given to the former.

    Original languageEnglish
    JournalHuman movement science
    Volume40
    Issue numberApril
    Pages (from-to)352-358
    Number of pages7
    ISSN0167-9457
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 04.2015

    Research areas and keywords

    • Adult
    • Depth Perception
    • Female
    • Gravitation
    • Human Body
    • Humans
    • Male
    • Normal Distribution
    • Orientation
    • Photic Stimulation
    • Posture
    • Reaction Time
    • Rotation
    • Vision, Ocular
    • Writing
    • Young Adult

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Mental rotation of letters, body parts and scenes during whole-body tilt: role of a body-centered versus a gravitational reference frame'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Citation