Suppose that you and a group of other students want to conduct a study on mental rotation, using photographs of human faces. You find that people take longer to rotate a mental image, as the size of the rotation increases. Which approach do your data support?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The analog approach is supported by your data because it suggests that mental imagery works in a way similar to physical objects, where the time it takes to "rotate" an image in the mind increases with the size of the rotation, mirroring real-world physics. This is in contrast to the propositional approach, which would not predict a relationship between rotation size and time taken, as it views mental imagery as abstract symbols and not as visual/spatial representations.

Suppose That You and a Group of Other Students Want