Perceptual rotations on children's Rorschachs.

Perceptual rotations are responses in which the percept is upside-down or sideways from the usual position. In a population of 79 children, ages 3 to 15, 75% male, referred to the school psychologist for personality assessment for emotional, behavior, or learning problems; 1 in 9 Rorschach protocols contained at least one rotation. Rotations were not related significantly to reason for referral, learning disabilities, more general learning problems, or organic indicators. Responses showed individual differences in complexity, awareness, comfort with rotation, and aspects of righting the card to correspond with orientation of percept. Findings suggest that perceptual rotations do not matter as much as do strategies for coping with them.