Visual working memory as the substrate for mental rotation: A replication
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-024-02602-4
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
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Summary
This study addresses conflicting evidence regarding the specific role of visual working memory (VWM) subsystems in mental rotation. Previous research by Hyun and Luck (2007) suggested that object working memory, but not spatial working memory, supports mental rotation, a finding often cited to support the primacy of object representation. However, correlational studies indicate spatial working memory is also relevant. Motivated by Hyun and Luck’s small sample size and gender imbalance, this paper presents a large-scale replication to clarify whether object or spatial VWM is the substrate for mental rotation and to explore potential sex differences. The authors conducted two experiments with a total of 213 participants. Using a dual-task paradigm, participants performed a mental rotation task (rotating letters) concurrently with either an object working memory task (monitoring color changes in Experiment 1) or a spatial working memory task (monitoring position changes in Experiment 2). Articulatory suppression was used to prevent verbal encoding. The researchers hypothesized that interference would be rotation-dependent in Experiment 1 but absent or weaker in Experiment 2. Data were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models to assess response times and accuracy across single-task and dual-task conditions. The results failed to replicate Hyun and Luck’s findings. In Experiment 1, dual-task interference was observed in working memory accuracy, but not in mental rotation performance. In Experiment 2, interference effects appeared in both mental rotation accuracy and working memory accuracy. Crucially, the interference did not differ significantly between the two experiments, nor was it dependent on the angle of rotation in either case. Exploratory analyses revealed no significant sex differences in performance or interference effects. The authors conclude that visual working memory is involved in the processing and decision-making stages of mental rotation, but this involvement does not distinguish between object and spatial subsystems as previously claimed. The general interference effects suggest a shared resource demand rather than a specific reliance on object features. These findings challenge the notion that object working memory is uniquely responsible for mental rotation and highlight the need for further research, particularly with more complex stimuli, to fully understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying spatial abilities.
Provenance
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-25 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-11 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-25; verification: verified.
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