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Mental rotation and the human body: Children's inflexible use of embodiment mirrors that of adults
- Source :
- British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 36:418-437
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Wiley, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Adults' mental rotation performance with body-like stimuli is enhanced if these stimuli are anatomically compatible with a human body, but decreased by anatomically incompatible stimuli. In this study, we investigated these effects for kindergartners and first-graders: When asked to mentally rotate cube configurations attached with human body parts in an anatomically compatible way, allowing for the projection of a human body, children performed better than with pure cube combinations. By contrast, when body parts were attached in an anatomically incompatible way, disallowing the projection of a human body, children performed worse than with pure combinations. This experiment is of specific interest against the background of two different theoretical approaches concerning imagery and the motor system in development: One approach assumes an increasing integration of motor processes and imagery over time that enables older children and adults to requisition motor resources for imagery processes, while the other postulates that imagery stems from early sensorimotor processes in the first place, and is disentangled from it over time. The finding that children of the two age groups tested show exactly the same effects as adults when mentally rotating anatomically compatible and incompatible stimuli is interpreted in favour of the latter approach. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? In mental rotation, adults perform better when rotating anatomically possible stimuli as compared to rotating standard cube combinations. Performance is worse when rotating anatomically impossible stimuli. What does this study add? The present study shows that children's mental transformations mirror those of adults in these respects. In case of the anatomically impossible stimuli, this highlights an inflexible use of embodiment in both age groups. This is in line with the Piagetian assumption of imagery being based on sensorimotor processes.
- Subjects :
- Male
Motorische Entwicklung
Rotation
Raumvorstellung
Kind
Poison control
Experimentelle Psychologie
050105 experimental psychology
Mental rotation
motor imagery
Child Development
Motor imagery
Developmental Neuroscience
Age groups
Motor system
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Kognitive Entwicklung
Humans
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Child
Projection (set theory)
embodiment
Human Body
05 social sciences
Piaget
Contrast (music)
Human body
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Child, Preschool
Space Perception
Imagination
Female
spatial skills
Psychology
mental transformation
imagery
mental rotation
050104 developmental & child psychology
Cognitive psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 0261510X
- Volume :
- 36
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- British Journal of Developmental Psychology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7531c03c5e5ad600545f83997357bf95
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12228