The Role of Mental Rehearsal in Spatial and Object Imagery during Mental Rotation

Abstract

Mental imagery has long been a topic of interest in cognitive psychology, with researchers exploring the relationship between spatial abilities, visual processing, and mental rotation. This study aims to investigate the impact of mental rehearsal on mental rotation, specifically examining whether spatial imagery or object imagery is the more dominant mechanism. The experiment involved 54 participants divided into three groups. The first group (18 participants) practiced mental rehearsal based on mental rotation, while the second group (18 participants) engaged in a task involving scoring tennis balls on different visual shapes (four large and four small). The third group performed mental rotation without any mental rehearsal or visual stimuli. Results show that mental rehearsal spun the mental rotation on vertical axis and right side of rotation, these results approve that mental imagery is not pictorial information, but also mainplanes the motor system, these findings have opened many questions for future studies about left- and right-hand tasks  during rotation and mental imagery for motor system.