Discriminating the structure of rotated three-dimensional figures.

Visualizing the structure of transformed (by rotation) three-dimensional (3-D) figures is an important aspect of information processing for computer-graphics tasks. However, little research exists to establish the speed and accuracy in which subjects perform discrimination tasks for transformed images and the effects of rotation variables on perceiving transformed images. This research tests the effects of figural complexity, angles and axes of rotation on the speed and accuracy in which subjects discriminate the structure of rotated 3-D wireframe images. Results show that response times are affected more by angles than axes of rotation, the specific form of the image affects error rates, and the number of 90 degrees bends which determine the structure of an image may be an inadequate measure of form complexity for the task described here.