Two routes to expertise in mental rotation

A computational account of conflict processing during mental imagery

Previous studies examining conflict processing within the context of a color-word Stroop task have focused on both stimulus and response conflicts. However, it has been unclear whether conflict can emerge independently of stimulus conflict. In this study, a novel arrow-gaze mental-rotation Stroop task was introduced to explore the interplay between conflict processing and mental rotation. A modelling approach was utilized to provide a process-level account of the findings. The results of our Stroop task indicate that conflict can emerge from mental rotation in the absence of stimulus conflict. The strength of this imagery conflict effect decreases and even reverses as mental rotation angles increase. Additionally, it was observed that participants responded more quickly and with greater accuracy to small rather than large face orientations. A comparison of three conflict diffusion models-the diffusion model for conflict tasks (DMC), the dual-stage two-phase model (DSTP), and the shrinking spotlight model (SSP)-yielded consistent support for the DSTP over the DMC and SSP in the majority of instances. The DSTP account of the experimental results revealed an increased nondecision time with increasing mental rotation, a reduction in interference from incompatible stimuli, and an improved drift rate in response selection phase, which suggests enhanced cognitive control. The findings from the model-based analysis provide evidence for a novel interaction between cognitive control and mental rotation.

Investigation of factors that influence the relationship between mental rotation ability and anatomy learning

BACKGROUND

Mental rotation is a cognitive process that involves the rotation of a mental representation of an object. This ability is important for medical students in studying anatomy as this subject requires the understanding of positional relations between organs.

OBJECTIVES

To find the effect of video learning of anatomy, training, gender, and type of practical exam on mental rotation ability. Also, to find correlation between mental rotation and anatomy scores.

METHODS

Two groups were recruited: group A studied practical anatomy online using videos due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown; group B studied anatomy labs on-campus on plastic models. Both groups underwent a mental rotation test. Group A took labs on-campus during their second year and this was considered a training course for their mental rotation ability. Both groups, then, took a second mental rotation test. Group A was finally given a practical anatomy exam using plastic models.

RESULTS

Males scored higher than females, though not significantly. The intervention course produced no significant change in mental rotation score of group A. Mental rotation score was correlated more with the theoretical anatomy exams than the MCQ-based practical exam, for both groups. For group A, mental rotation was better correlated with the model-based than the MCQ-based practical exam, especially the post-training score.

CONCLUSION

For students to take full advantage of their mental rotation ability, not only their practical anatomy sessions but their practical anatomy exams should be on anatomical specimens and not just videos or images.

One turn at a time: Behavioral and ERP evidence for two types of rotations in the classical mental rotation task

We perform mental rotations in many everyday situations, such as reading a map or following furniture assembling instructions. In a classical mental rotation task, participants are asked to judge whether a rotated stimulus is presented in its mirrored form or its canonical form. Previous results have indicated a degree effect: RT is longer as the angle of rotation increases, and this effect is traditionally explained by arguing that this judgment requires rotating the stimulus back to its upright form. Importantly, in half of the trials, the stimuli are rotated on both the page plane and mirror plane. Namely, we argue that in previous research the task actually involved two different rotation processes. To provide a clear dissociation between these two rotations, we collected EEG data and used the Contralateral Delay Activity (CDA) as an indicator of visual working memory (VWM) load. The results of Experiment 1 suggested different VWM involvement according to the degrees rotations when the item was not mirrored, such that the CDA amplitude generally increased as the degree of rotation was higher. Mirrored trials were all at ceiling in terms of CDA, regardless of their rotation degree. Experiment 2 showed increased CDA amplitude uniquely related to the flip rotation. Thus, we provided ERP evidence that the canonical mental rotation task involves two types of rotations that can be dissociated based on the load they imposed on VWM.

Object weight can be rapidly predicted, with low cognitive load, by exploiting learned associations between the weights and locations of objects

Weight prediction is critical for dexterous object manipulation. Previous work has focused on lifting objects presented in isolation and has examined how the visual appearance of an object is used to predict its weight. Here we tested the novel hypothesis that when interacting with multiple objects, as is common in everyday tasks, people exploit the locations of objects to directly predict their weights, bypassing slower and more demanding processing of visual properties to predict weight. Using a three-dimensional robotic and virtual reality system, we developed a task in which participants were presented with a set of objects. In each trial a randomly chosen object translated onto the participant's hand and they had to anticipate the object's weight by generating an equivalent upward force. Across conditions we could control whether the visual appearance and/or location of the objects were informative as to their weight. Using this task, and a set of analogous web-based experiments, we show that when location information was predictive of the objects' weights participants used this information to achieve faster prediction than observed when prediction is based on visual appearance. We suggest that by "caching" associations between locations and weights, the sensorimotor system can speed prediction while also lowering working memory demands involved in predicting weight from object visual properties.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We use a novel object support task using a three-dimensional robotic interface and virtual reality system to provide evidence that the locations of objects are used to predict their weights. Using location information, rather than the visual appearance of the objects, supports fast prediction, thereby avoiding processes that can be demanding on working memory.

Mental Rotation of Tactic Board Instructions in Basketball: Domain-Specific Expertise Improves On-Court Performance

Purpose: In basketball, tactical instructions are presented on tactic boards under temporal constraints (e.g., time-outs). Based on the disparity in the orientation of the tactic board and the players' egocentric on-court visual perspective, there are high affordances in visual-spatial transformation (e.g., mental rotation), which impede information processing and decrease execution accuracy. The aim of this study was to scrutinize how the effect of different orientations of visual tactical displays on information processing demands and execution accuracy is affected by expertise in basketball. Methods: In a mixed-factors-design with two factors, 48 participants were assigned to a group of experienced basketball players (n = 24) and novices (n = 24). They were instructed to execute basketball playing patterns, which were presented on a virtual tactic board in five different spatial disparities to the players' on-court perspective. Results: The self-controlled time for watching the instructions before execution was significantly shorter and spatial accuracy in pattern execution was significantly higher for lower disparities between instruction perspective and on-court perspective. Experienced basketball players displayed shorter observation times as well as higher accuracy as a global effect, being independent of stimulus orientation. Moreover, the effect of orientation on observation times was lower in the experienced group as compared to the novices. Conclusion: Extensive experience over several years with visuo-spatial transformations of tactical instructions reduced, but not eliminated, the effects of model-observer disparity. Accordingly, coaches should align their tactic boards to their players' on-court viewing perspective to enable fast processing and errorless execution of tactical instructions.

Neurophysiology of embodied mental rotation: Event-related potentials in a mental rotation task with human bodies as compared to alphanumeric stimuli

The present study examines if the neural signature of information processing in mental rotation tasks is moderated by stimulus characteristics (e.g., body-related vs. non-body-related stimuli). In the present experiment, stimulus sets of human figures (back view; left vs. right arm abduction) and alphanumeric characters ('R'; normal vs. mirrored view) were scrutinized with event-related potentials (ERPs) in the electroencephalography (EEG). Participants had to judge parity between an upright (0° orientation) and a comparison stimulus (stimulus disparity; 0°, 45°, 90°, 135° or 180°). There was a main effect of stimulus disparity for the behavioural (response time and error rates), as well as for the neural data (rotation-related negativity, RRN). The interaction of stimulus disparity and stimulus type was significant for the RRN, but not for the response time. Lower RRN amplitudes for letters indicate a more pronounced use of alternative processes (e.g., memory retrieval), which seems to be reflected in higher N350 amplitudes. Moreover, the increase of the RRN amplitude and the increase in response time as a function of disparity were positively correlated. Task differences were evident for several ERP components (i.e., N150, P150 and N250), being independent of disparity, which might reflect differences in early and late object cognition prior to the mental rotation process itself. This might be associated with the task-dependent activation of embodied cognition processes in mental rotation tasks.

A New Spin on Spatial Cognition in ADHD: A Diffusion Model Decomposition of Mental Rotation

OBJECTIVES

Multiple studies have found evidence of task non-specific slow drift rate in ADHD, and slow drift rate has rapidly become one of the most visible cognitive hallmarks of the disorder. In this study, we use the diffusion model to determine whether atypicalities in visuospatial cognitive processing exist independently of slow drift rate.

METHODS

Eight- to twelve-year-old children with (n = 207) and without ADHD (n = 99) completed a 144-trial mental rotation task.

RESULTS

Performance of children with ADHD was less accurate and more variable than non-ADHD controls, but there were no group differences in mean response time. Drift rate was slower, but nondecision time was faster for children with ADHD. A Rotation × ADHD interaction for boundary separation was also found in which children with ADHD did not strategically adjust their response thresholds to the same degree as non-ADHD controls. However, the Rotation × ADHD interaction was not significant for nondecision time, which would have been the primary indicator of a specific deficit in mental rotation per se.

CONCLUSIONS

Poorer performance on the mental rotation task was due to slow rate of evidence accumulation, as well as relative inflexibility in adjusting boundary separation, but not to impaired visuospatial processing specifically. We discuss the implications of these findings for future cognitive research in ADHD.

Slow drift rate predicts ADHD symptomology over and above executive dysfunction

Slow drift rate has become one of the most salient cognitive deficits among children with ADHD, and has repeatedly been found to explain slow, variable, and error-prone performance on tasks of executive functioning (EF). The present study applies the diffusion model to determine whether slow drift rate better predicts parent and teacher ratings of ADHD than standard EF metrics. 201 children aged 8-12 completed two tests of speeded decision-making analyzed with the diffusion model and two traditionally scored tests of EF. Latent EF and drift rate factors each independently predicted the general ADHD factor in a bifactor model of ADHD, with poor EF and slow drift rate associated with greater ADHD symptomology. When both EF and drift rate were entered into the model, slow drift rate (but not EF) continued to predict elevated symptomology. These findings suggest that using drift rate to index task performance improves upon conventional approaches to measuring and conceptualizing cognitive dysfunction in ADHD. Implications for future cognitive research in ADHD are discussed.

Mental rotation and performance in basketball: effects of self-controlled and externally controlled time constraints on the processing and execution of tactic board instructions with varied orientations

Purpose

In sports games, tactical instructions are mostly presented on tactic boards under temporal constraints determined by the length of time outs (e.g., 20–60 s time outs in basketball) and coaches’ instructional behavior. Thus, instructions should be presented in a way that enables fast and errorless information processing. High affordances in visual–spatial transformation (e.g., mental rotation processes) might both impede information processing and decrease execution performance. The aim of this study was to scrutinize the effect of different orientations of visual tactical displays on observation time under self-paced conditions as well as to compare the effects on execution performance to those of externally paced conditions. According to the self-determination theory, self-control over observation time is assumed to increase performance.

Methods

In a mixed-factors design with two factors, 48 participants were instructed to execute a basketball playing pattern, which was presented on a virtual tactic board in one of five different spatial disparities to the players’ on-court perspective. The Self-Paced Group determined the observation time in a self-controlled manner, whereas in the Yoked Group observation times were externally controlled, i.e., the observation time was constrained to match that of the Self-Paced Group..

Results

The self-controlled time for watching the pattern before execution was significantly shorter and spatial accuracy in pattern execution was significantly higher for low disparity between instruction perspective and on-court perspective. Self-control over observation time did not affect execution accuracy.

Conclusion

The orientation effects might be explained by interfering mental rotation processes that are necessary to transform the instructional perspective into the players’ egocentric perspective. According to these results, coaches should align their tactic boards to their players’ on-court viewing perspective.

Strengthening spatial reasoning: elucidating the attentional and neural mechanisms associated with mental rotation skill development

Spatial reasoning is a critical skill in many everyday tasks and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. The current study examined how training on mental rotation (a spatial reasoning task) impacts the completeness of an encoded representation and the ability to rotate the representation. We used a multisession, multimethod design with an active control group to determine how mental rotation ability impacts performance for a trained stimulus category and an untrained stimulus category. Participants in the experimental group (n = 18) showed greater improvement than the active control group (n = 18) on the mental rotation tasks. The number of saccades between objects decreased and saccade amplitude increased after training, suggesting that participants in the experimental group encoded more of the object and possibly had more complete mental representations after training. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data revealed distinct neural activation associated with mental rotation, notably in the right motor cortex and right lateral occipital cortex. These brain areas are often associated with rotation and encoding complete representations, respectively. Furthermore, logistic regression revealed that activation in these brain regions during the post-training scan significantly predicted training group assignment. Overall, the current study suggests that effective mental rotation training protocols should aim to improve the encoding and manipulation of mental representations.

Practice induces a qualitative change in the memory representation for visuomotor learning

Adaptation of our movements to changes in the environment is known to be supported by multiple learning processes that operate in parallel. One is an implicit recalibration process driven by sensory-prediction errors; the other process counters the perturbation through more deliberate compensation. Prior experience is known to enable adaptation to occur more rapidly, a phenomenon known as “savings,” but exactly how experience alters each underlying learning process remains unclear. We measured the relative contributions of implicit recalibration and deliberate compensation to savings across 2 days of practice adapting to a visuomotor rotation. The rate of implicit recalibration showed no improvement with repeated practice. Instead, practice led to deliberate compensation being expressed even when preparation time was very limited. This qualitative change is consistent with the proposal that practice establishes a cached association linking target locations to appropriate motor output, facilitating a transition from deliberate to automatic action selection.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY Recent research has shown that savings for visuomotor adaptation is attributable to retrieval of intentional, strategic compensation. This does not seem consistent with the implicit nature of memory for motor skills and calls into question the validity of visuomotor adaptation of reaching movements as a model for motor skill learning. Our findings suggest a solution: that additional practice adapting to a visuomotor perturbation leads to the caching of the initially explicit strategy for countering it.

The Role of Time Constraints in Athletes' Egocentric Mental Rotation Performance

A selective effect of motor expertise on mental rotation is revealed by a high correlation between the performance of sports experts and ability on a mental rotation task. Evidence is shown by studies involving a spatial factor, such as image interference or a movement constraint. Alternatively, the time constraint, as another performance factor, is considered critical in the effect of sport expertise on mental rotation. Three experiments were conducted to examine the role of time constraints in egocentric mental rotation and the stage performance of athletes (divers) and nonathletes. In Experiment 1, an egocentric mental rotation task in an untimed condition was conducted, and reaction times (RTs), error rates (ERs), RTs at 0 °, and mental rotation speed were assessed. The results indicated that divers outperformed nonathletes in terms of RT, as well as perceptual and decision stages and rotation stages. Experiments 2 and 3 added a relative time constraint (subtracting 1/2 SD of all the subjects' RT from the M of each group's RT) and an absolute time constraint (subtracting 1/2 SD of all the subjects' RT from the M of all the subjects' RT) to the task, respectively. Superior RT and lower ER were observed for the divers in the time constraint condition. Moreover, the results illustrated that divers were faster than nonathletes in both stages when facing time pressure. In general, the present study has, for the first time, confirmed the role of time in the relationship between sports expertise and mental rotation.

Dissociable cognitive strategies for sensorimotor learning

Computations underlying cognitive strategies in human motor learning are poorly understood. Here we investigate such strategies in a common sensorimotor transformation task. We show that strategies assume two forms, likely reflecting distinct working memory representations: discrete caching of stimulus-response contingencies, and time-consuming parametric computations. Reaction times and errors suggest that both strategies are employed during learning, and trade off based on task complexity. Experiments using pressured preparation time further support dissociable strategies: In response caching, time pressure elicits multi-modal distributions of movements; during parametric computations, time pressure elicits a shifting distribution of movements between visual targets and distal goals, consistent with analog re-computing of a movement plan. A generalization experiment reveals that discrete and parametric strategies produce, respectively, more localized or more global transfer effects. These results describe how qualitatively distinct cognitive representations are leveraged for motor learning and produce downstream consequences for behavioral flexibility.

The role of dorsal premotor cortex in mental rotation: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study

Although activation of dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) has been consistently observed in the neuroimaging studies of mental rotation, the functional meaning of PMd activation is still unclear and multiple alternative explanations have been suggested. The present study used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to investigate the role of PMd in mental rotation. Two tasks were used, involving mental rotation of hands and abstract objects, with either matching (same stimuli) or mirror stimuli. Compared to sham stimulation, TMS over right and left PMd regions significantly affected accuracy in the object task, specifically for the same stimuli. Furthermore, response times were longer following right PMd stimulation in both the object and the hand tasks, but again, selectively for the same stimuli. The effect of rotational angle on response times and accuracies was greater for the same stimuli. Moreover TMS over PMd impaired the performance accuracy selectively in these stimuli, mainly in a task that included abstract objects. For these reasons, the present findings indicate a contribution of PMd to mental rotation.

The influence of levetiracetam in cognitive performance in healthy individuals: neuropsychological, behavioral and electrophysiological approach

OBJECTIVE

The present study sought to analyze the influence of Levetiracetam (LEV) in cognitive performance by identifying the changes produced by LEV in reaction time, in neuropsychological assessment of attention and memory and in absolute theta power in frontal activity.

METHODS

Twelve healthy subjects (5 men and 7 women; mean age, 30.08 years, standard deviation, 4.71) were recruited for this study. The neuropsychological tests: Trail Making Test (A and B), Digit Span (direct and indirect numerical orders/working memory); Stroop test (inhibitory control of attention); Tower of London (planning and decision-making) and a quantitative electroencephalography were applied in 2 different days after and before the participants ingested the capsule of placebo or 500 mg LEV.

RESULTS

A two-way-ANOVA was implemented to observe the interaction between conditions (placebo or LEV 500 mg) and moments (pre- and post-ingestion of LEV or placebo). The data were analyzed by the SPSS statistical package (p<0.05). For the neuropsychological parameter, the Trail Making Test (A) was the only test that showed significant difference for condition in the task execution time (p=0.026). Regarding the reaction time in the behavioral parameter, an interaction between both factors (p=0.034) was identified through a two-way-ANOVA (condition versus moment). Electrophysiological measures showed a significant interaction for electrodes: F7, F3, and FZ.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings showed that LEV promotes an important cognitive enhancement in the executive functions.