TITLE:
Interaction between Mental Rotation and Manual Rotation with and without Motor Planning
AUTHORS:
Shinkichi Nishihara, Fumihito Imai, Akiko Fujiki, Yoshimasa Majima
KEYWORDS:
Mental Rotation, Manual Rotation, Motor Planning, Kinesthetic Feedback, Active Hand Movement, Passive Hand Movement
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.6 No.9,
July
13,
2015
ABSTRACT: Two experiments involving mental rotation with two types of manual rotation were run. In Exp 1, participants had to perform the mental rotation task with active hand movement using a rotating device that did not move automatically. In Exp 2, participants had to perform the mental rotation with passive hand movement using an automatically rotating device. The interaction effect between mental and manual rotation was observed only in the former case. These opposing results indicate that it is motor planning associated only with active movement that plays an important role in the interaction between mental and manual rotation and not the proprioceptive/kinesthetic feedback caused by the manual rotation itself.