This paper concerns the influence of perceptual motor skills on the transformation processes during mental visual imaging. We first administered a visual recognition task to subjects, during which they scanned and rotated visual mental images. Then, we measured motor skills in perceptual situations. The main result is that both mental scanning and mental rotation processes are quicker when they simulate a perceptual motor skill of the subject. Furthermore, mental rotation seems to be canceled when the hemisphere activated by perception has to control the behavioral response. These results suggest that visual mental images are transformed partly via motor processes.
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