Ilan A B, Miller J
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0109.
J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 1994 Jun;20(3):520-36. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.20.3.520.
Six experiments tested the assumption that the mental rotation process is purely inserted into a mirror-normal discrimination task. In Experiment 1, subjects took significantly longer to respond to upright characters in blocks containing rotated stimuli than in blocks containing only upright stimuli. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that this "rotational uncertainty" effect was not caused by the need to determine stimulus orientation, and Experiment 4 showed that it was independent of the visual quality of the stimulus. Experiment 5 showed that the effect was greatly reduced when subjects performed a go-no-go task rather than choice reaction time (RT), and Experiment 6 showed that it was independent of the complexity of the response required in the choice task. The results suggest that response selection in a choice RT mirror-normal discrimination task is altered when mental rotation is added, violating the assumption of pure insertion.
六项实验对心理旋转过程纯粹是插入到镜像-正立辨别任务这一假设进行了测试。在实验1中，与只包含正立刺激的组块相比，被试对包含旋转刺激的组块中的正立字符做出反应的时间显著更长。实验2和3表明，这种“旋转不确定性”效应不是由确定刺激方向的需要所导致的，实验4表明它与刺激的视觉质量无关。实验5表明，当被试执行一个“是-否”任务而非选择反应时（RT）时，该效应会大大降低，实验6表明它与选择任务中所需反应的复杂性无关。结果表明，在选择反应时镜像-正立辨别任务中，当加入心理旋转时，反应选择会发生改变，这违背了纯粹插入的假设。
