The choice of a psychometric instrument for measuring

mental imagery remains a contentious issue among researchers. Questionnaires are widely used for measuring mental imagery (for a reviews, see McKelvie, 1995; and Richardson, 1994). Of these, the most predominant are the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ; Marks, 1973) that measures vividness of visual imagery, and the Betts’ Questionnaire Upon Mental Imagery (Betts’ QMI; Sheehan, 1967) that measures vividness of imagery in terms of seven senses: visual, auditory, cutaneous, kinaesthetic, gustatory, olfactory and organic. More recently, cognitive and neuroscience studies (Kosslyn, 1994; Kosslyn & Koenig, 1992) have shown that imagery is not unitary, and two types of imagery have been identifi ed i.e., object imagery and spatial imagery (Blajenkova, Kozhevnikov, & Motes, 2006). Object imagery refers to imagery in terms of form, size, colour, etc, whereas spatial imagery refers to the relationship between objects, movement of objects, spatial transformations, and so forth (Blajenkova et al., 2006). An individual may have abilities in one type of imagery task, but less or none in others. Factorial analysis undertaken by Carroll (1993) on a broad range of tests revealed fi ve fi rst order factors in spatial ability: Visualization (VZ), Spatial Relations (SR), Closure Speed (CS), Closure Flexibility (CF), and Perceptual Speed (P). Thereafter, factorial analysis undertaken by Burton and Fogarty (2003) with the results of 42 measures of visual imagery and spatial ability also revealed fi ve factors that were termed: Visualization (VZ), Spatial Relations (SR), Speed of Closure (CS), Visual Memory (MV), and a combined Perceptual Speed-Closure Flexibility (P/CF). To measure the speed of image rotation (SR), Burton and Fogarty’s (2003) used the Card Rotation Test (Ekstrom, French, Harman, & Dermen, 1976), the Cube Comparison Test (Ekstrom et al., 1976), and the Spatial Relations Test (Thurstone & Thurstone, 1962/2002). Carroll’s (1993) study and Burton and Fogarty’s (2003) study agree in two of the three tests used to measure image rotation, and both studies coincide in that Visualization (VZ) was the most heavily weighted factor, followed by Spatial Relations (SR). The three image rotation tests proposed by Burton and Fogarty (2003), together with the Mental Rotation Test (MRT; Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978) are among the most extensively used image rotation tests. Burton and Fogarty (2003) found the Cronbach alpha was .96 for the Card Rotation Test, .80 for the Cube Comparison Test, and .89 for the Spatial Relations Test. Thurstone and Thurstone (1962/2002) obtained a test-retest reliability of .73 on the Spatial Relations Test. Vandenberg and Kuse (1978) found a KuderRichardson of .88, and a reliability test-retest of .83 on the Mental Rotation Test. Image rotation tests are on the whole highly correlated to tests measuring rotation, and spatial imagery tests, but poorly or not correlated with questionnaires measuring mental image vividness (Blazhenkova & Kozhevnikov, 2009; Burton & Fogarty, 2003; Campos, 2009). The Card Rotation Test correlated .58 with the Cube Comparison Test, and .77 with the Spatial Relations Test. The Cube Comparison Test correlated .58 with the Spatial Relations Psicothema 2012. Vol. 24, no 3, pp. 431-434 ISSN 0214 9915 CODEN PSOTEG www.psicothema.com Copyright © 2012 Psicothema