Mental rotation, physical rotation, and surface media.

Ss made mirror-normal discriminations on alphanumeric characters shown in different orientations in the picture plane. Either the characters or the background rotated during stimulus presentation in Exps 1–3. Character rotation in the direction of mental rotation facilitated mental rotation, whereas rotation in the opposite direction inhibited it. In Exp 4, characters were presented in different surface media so as to stimulate only 1 representation at a time. Mental rotation performance was similar whether the stimuli were defined by luminance, color, texture, relative motion, or binocular disparity, suggesting that mental rotation occurs at a level beyond that of the independent analyses of these different media. These results support those of Exps 1–3 in excluding the participation of low-level motion analysis centers in the mental rotation processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)