Let’s twist again! Embodiment effects in spatial judgments on human figures rotated along a vertical axis

ABSTRACT

We investigated whether individuals used mental rotation and embodiment for arm laterality judgments of human figures that were stepwise rotated from back view to front view along a vertical axis. In Experiment 1, figures’ heads were always shown in profile, while only the bodies were rotated. Judgments were faster and more correct when figures were presented in back view compared to front view, but the relation between reaction times (RTs) and rotation angles was not strictly linear. In addition, judgments on figures in anatomically possible postures were better than on figures in impossible postures. In Experiment 2, figures’ heads were turned together with their body. RTs and rotation angles were linearly related. Results suggest that individuals use both mental rotation and a more direct matching between their own body and that of the figures, when making arm laterality judgments of human figures that are rotated along a vertical axis.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental rotation
• spatial transformation
• embodied cognition
• imagery
• spatial imagery

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Maria Granovsky and Alexander Reschke for assistance in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Greenhouse–Geisser is reported throughout the manuscript if sphericity could not be assumed.

2 These effects remain significant on the .01 level after Bonferroni correction, taking into account that these data have been analyzed before.

3 Please note that analyses that included side of the arm as additional variable yielded the same results (see Appendix: Tables A1 and A2).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grant KR-4504/2-1 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).