PSYCH 140M Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Memory Span, Mental Rotation, Psych
Document Summary
Presented subjects with drawings of cube clusters. Subjects determined if clusters were same (only rotated), or if two clusters were structured differently. Subjects took longer to make judgments as the angular disparity between the two figures increased. Suggests that shape comparison accomplished by carrying out a mental analog of an actual physical rotation of one of the objects. Suggests that mental imagery is a visual representation similar to the physical object. Examined experts in using abacus for performing calculations. Experts could perform expert mental calculations simply by imagining/visualizing the abacus. Experts had large digit spans (about 16 digits) Memory span for other verbal material (where use of abacus is of no use) just average. Experimenters gave experts digit span task, but performed a spatial task at same time. Suggests that spatial task was disrupting their mental imagery of the abacus. For control subjects, performance was more disrupted by articulatory suppression than by spatial task.
