Mental body rotation with egocentric and object-based transformations in different postures: sitting vs. standing

BACKGROUND: A detail of previous studies on mental rotation, which has not received any attention so far, relates to the testing situation of the participants. In nearly every study, participants were tested in a sitting posture (and not standing). However, when considering embodied cognition approaches on mental processes, participants may not be able to fully exploit these processes when performing mental rotation tasks in a sitting posture.
 AIM: Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the potential influence of two different postures (sitting vs. standing), when solving mental body rotation tasks.
 METHOD: Sixteen participants (6 females) were tested in two mental body-rotation tasks (MBRT), requiring either an object-based spatial transformation (based on a same-different judgment) or an egocentric transformation (based on a left-right judgment) in a sitting and in a standing posture. Reaction times and response errors were analysed in two three-way ANOVAs, with the factors orientation, task, and posture.
 RESULTS: Results revealed an effect of orientation and task, indicating that participants performed better for egocentric than for object-based transformations. However, there was no effect of posture.
 CONCLUSION: The different dynamics of postural control during sitting and standing do not induce different embodiment effects on mental rotation.