Spatial Representation and Haptic Mental Rotation

In this paper it is argued that it is legitimate to talk about mental imagery, and thus, to claim that spatial information is coded in an analogue mode. Evidence from research with blind people indicate that they can perform mental rotation and that analogue spatial cognition does not depend on visual information. It is therefore proposed that, if the blind can perform mental rotation in an analogue mode, there exists a common mode, for processing spatial information, which is not modality specific. The results of the presented study, which was conducted on eight blind subjects, and was intended to extend previous findings, was not conclusive. Reaction time of a haptic mental rotation task could not directly be shown to be a linear function of angular disparity. An alternative theory, based on two different cognitive strategies, is considered as an alternative explanation of the experimental results.