Exploring the Dynamics of Postural Stability During Egocentric Mental Rotation Tasks with Multi-Axial Figure Rotations
Wed—HZ_8—Talks9—9505
Presented by: Philipp Hofmann
Mental rotation refers to the ability to visualize objects being rotated in one's mind. A specific form of this is egocentric mental rotation, where participants are shown a figure with a distinguishing feature on one side. They are asked to identify whether the feature is on the right or left side. It is believed that this task involves the observer imagining themselves rotating within the environment to make the judgment. Given the known link between mental and motor rotations, and the connection between mental rotation ability and postural stability, this study explores whether the trajectory of the center of pressure course over time, indicating postural stability, changes during egocentric tasks involving human figures rotated along the x-, y- and z-axis (only one axis at a time). To examine this, center of pressure parameters are recorded while participants stand on a force plate (AMTI OR6-2000, 1000 Hz) and engage in a dual-task design, solving egocentric mental rotation tasks using human figures as stimuli. A two-factor repeated measures ANOVA using the factors "axis of rotation" (x,y,z) and "rotation angle" (0°, 60°/300°, 120°/240°, 180°) will be calculated for each postural stability parameter. The final sample size of N = 105 was calculated using G-Power. Data collection is ongoing, and results will be available before the conference. The study is pre-registered on osf.io. Insights from this research will contribute to understanding the motor processes underlying mental rotation and emphasize the role of embodiment.
Keywords: postural stability, mental rotation, dual-task