Cognitive coordinate systems: Accounts of mental rotation and individual differences in spatial ability.

Abstract

Strategic differences in spatial tasks can be explained in terms of different cognitive coordinate systems that subjects adopt. The strategy of mental rotation (of the type used in most mental rotation experiments and in some psychometric tests of spatial ability) uses a coordinate system defined by the standard axes of our visual world (i.e. horizontal, vertical, and depth axes). Within this strategy, rotations are performed around one or more of the standard axes. The paper provides a detailed theoretical account of the mental rotation of individuals of low and high spatial ability as they solve problems taken from psychometric tests. The theory is instantiated as two related computer simulation models that not only solve the problems, but also match the response times for the two groups. The simulation models contain modularized units of procedural knowledge called productions, that select and execute the appropriate actions at each knowledge state. Small localized differences between the two models simulate the large quantitative and qualitative differences between the two groups of subjects.

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