MOVING AROUND OBJECTS AND RECOGNIZING THEM

This research concerned the use of mental rotation in recognizing rota ted objects. Instead of the classic Shepard's paradigm in which subjec ts were still while observing rotated objects, here subjects had to mo ve (or imagine moving) around stationary three-dimensional objects put in the middle of the trajectory. Thus, depending on the viewing posit ions, such objects were seen under six different perspectives (from 30 degrees to 180 degrees). The latter task has been thought to be close r to every day life in which we obtain information regarding objects f rom their spatial properties. The results do not follow the classic ru les of mental rotation of an object predicting a linear increase of th e time needed to recognize distorted objects as a function of their an gular displacement. They also differ from data in the literature about spatial imagery showing that access to spatial information is facilit ated more when people actually move through a path than when they imag ine moving. A probable explanation of this difference from the literat ure is discussed in relation to the particular involvement of the body in the experimental task.