Perrucci Vittore, Agnoli Franca, Albiero Paolo
Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, University of Padua, Padova, Italy.
Dev Sci. 2008 Sep;11(5):732-42. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00723.x.
Studies of the development of mental rotation have yielded conflicting results, apparently because different mental rotation tasks draw on different cognitive abilities. Children may compare two stimuli at different orientations without mental rotation if the stimuli contain orientation-free features. Two groups of children (78 6-year-olds and 92 8-year-olds) participated in an experiment investigating development of the ability to mentally rotate and the ability to recognize and use orientation-free features. Children compared two stimuli, one upright and one rotated, and responded as quickly as possible indicating whether the stimuli were the same or different. The stimuli were either two panda bears or two ice-cream cones with three scoops of ice-cream of different colors. The panda bears were either identical or mirror images. The cones were either identical, mirror images, or non-mirror images. Response times increased linearly as a function of the angle of orientation when stimuli were the same and when the stimuli were mirror images. But response times were much less dependent on angle of orientation for non-mirror image stimuli. Children as young as 6 years recognized orientation-free stimulus features and responded without mentally rotating when the task permitted this strategy.
关于心理旋转发展的研究得出了相互矛盾的结果，显然是因为不同的心理旋转任务利用了不同的认知能力。如果刺激包含无方向特征，儿童可能在不进行心理旋转的情况下比较不同方向的两个刺激。两组儿童（78名6岁儿童和92名8岁儿童）参与了一项实验，该实验调查心理旋转能力以及识别和使用无方向特征的能力的发展。儿童比较两个刺激，一个直立，一个旋转，并尽快做出反应，表明刺激是相同还是不同。刺激物要么是两只熊猫，要么是两个有三勺不同颜色冰淇淋的甜筒冰淇淋。熊猫要么相同要么是镜像。甜筒要么相同、镜像，要么非镜像。当刺激相同以及刺激是镜像时，反应时间作为方向角度的函数呈线性增加，但对于非镜像刺激，反应时间对方向角度的依赖性要小得多。6岁的儿童就能识别无方向刺激特征，并在任务允许这种策略时不进行心理旋转就做出反应。
