Motor imagery and engagement favour spatial reasoning.

Based on the assumption that spatial reasoning relies on the construction of mental models of the states of affairs described in the premises, and on evidence that sensory-motor imagery can enhance cognitive abilities, we hypothesised that imagining moving the objects mentioned in the premises to th...

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Published in:Memory & Cognition Vol. 51; no. 5; pp. 1103 - 1115
Main Authors: Ianì, Francesco, Schaeken, Walter, Ras, Ivan Nabil, Bucciarelli, Monica
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Jul2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jul2023
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      pub: Springer Nature
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        10.3758/s13421-022-01383-2
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      tig:
        atl: Motor imagery and engagement favour spatial reasoning.
      aug:
        au:
          Ianì, Francesco
          Schaeken, Walter
          Ras, Ivan Nabil
          Bucciarelli, Monica
        affil:
          Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli studi di Torino, Via Verdi, 10, 10123, Turin, Italy
          Centro di Logica, Linguaggio, e Cognizione, Università degli studi di Torino, Turin, Italy
          Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
      su:
        Memory
        Psychology
        Imagination
        Motor ability
        Conceptual models
        Reaction time
        Space perception
      sug:
        subj:
          Memory
          Psychology
          Imagination
          Motor ability
          Conceptual models
          Reaction time
          Space perception
      keyword:
        Engagement
        Mental models
        Motor imagery
        Spatial reasoning
        Engagement
        Mental models
        Motor imagery
        Spatial reasoning
      ab: Based on the assumption that spatial reasoning relies on the construction of mental models of the states of affairs described in the premises, and on evidence that sensory-motor imagery can enhance cognitive abilities, we hypothesised that imagining moving the objects mentioned in the premises to the specific spatial locations should favour spatial reasoning. The results of Experiment 1 confirmed the prediction: when participants imagined moving the objects mentioned in the premises (dynamic-engagement condition), they drew accurate inferences faster compared with participants who merely read the premises (static-non-engagement condition). Experiment 2 was in part a replication of Experiment 1 but included two additional experimental conditions to control for possible effects of self-engagement in reasoning: in one condition, participants imagined that someone else was moving the objects (dynamic-non-engagement condition), and in the other condition, participants imagined that they were observing the objects (static-engagement condition). The results revealed an interaction between motor imagery and engagement in decreasing response times to spatial problems. We discuss the practical implications of the current results.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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