THE INFLUENCE OF PERCEIVED ROTARY MOTION ON THE RECOGNITION OF ROTATED OBJECTS

Subjects either named rotated objects or decided whether the objects w ould face left or right if they were upright. Response time in the lef t-right task was influenced by a rotation aftereffect or by the physic al rotation of the object, which is consistent with the view that the objects were mentally rotated to the upright and that, depending on it s direction, the perceived rotary motion of the object either speeded or slowed mental rotation. Perceived rotary motion did not influence n aming time, which suggests that the identification of rotated objects does not involve mental rotation.