Developmental changes in the interference of motor processes with mental rotation
Journal
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2005
Author(s)
Abstract
Preceding studies with adult human subjects revealed that motor activities can influence mental rotation of body parts (e.g., hands) and abstract shapes. In this study, we investigated the influence of a rotational hand movement on mental rotation performance from a developmental perspective. Five-, eight-, and eleven-year-olds and adults were given a mental rotation task while they simultaneously rotated their hand (guided by a handle) about the same axis. The direction of the manual rotation was either compatible or incompatible with the direction of the mental rotation. As a baseline, children and adults performed the mental rotation task without concurrent hand movement. Response times increased with increasing stimulus orientation angle, indicating that subjects of all age groups used mental rotation to perform the task. Older age groups showed shorter response times. A differential influence of the direction of manual rotation on mental rotation was found for five-yearolds and eight-year-olds, but not for eleven-year-olds and adults. These results suggest that the ability to dissociate motor from visual mental processes increases with age.
Keywords
cognitive development
children
imagery
mental rotation
motor processes
Volume
27
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Name
2005_Frick_Developmental Changes in the Interference of Motor Processes with Mental Rotation.pdf
Size
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Format
Adobe PDF
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