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Effects of the axis of rotation and primordially
solicited limb of high level athletes in a mental
rotation task
Hamdi Habacha
⇑
, Laure Lejeune-Poutrain
1
, Nicolas Margas
1
,
Corinne Molinaro
1
Normandie Université, France, UNICAEN, CesamS, F-14032 Caen, France
article info
Article history:
PsycINFO classification:
2906
Keywords:
Mental body rotation
Physical activity
Embodiment
Limb
Rotation axis
abstract
A recent set of studies has investigated the selective effects of partic-
ular physical activities that require full-body rotations, such as gym-
nastics and wrestling (Moreau, Clerc, Mansy-Dannay, & Guerrien,
2012; Steggemann, Engbert,& Weigelt,2011), and demonstrated that
practicing these activities imparts a clear advantage in in-plane body
rotation performance. Other athletes, such as handball and soccer
players, whose activities do require body rotations may have more
experience with in-depth rotations. The present study examined
the effect of two components that are differently solicited in sport
practices on the mental rotation ability: the rotation axis (in-plane,
in-depth) and the predominantly used limb (arms, legs). Handball
players, soccer players, and gymnasts were asked to rotate handball
and soccer strikeimages mentally, which were presentedin different
in-planeand in-depth orientations.The results revealedthat handball
and soccer players performed the in-depth rotations faster than in-
plane rotations; however, the two rotation axes did not differ in gym-
nasts. In addition, soccer players performed the mental rotations of
handball strikeimages slower. Our findings suggest that the develop-
ment of mental rotation tasks that involve the major componentsof a
physical activity allows and is necessary for specifying the links
between this activity and the mental rotation performance.
Ó2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2014.06.002
0167-9457/Ó2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
⇑
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 02 31 56 72 65.
E-mail address: hamdi.habacha@gmail.com (H. Habacha).
1
Tel.: +33 02 31 56 72 65.
Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Human Movement Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/humov
1. Introduction
Mental rotation is an important cognitive ability that permits the mental rotation of representa-
tions of two- or three-dimensional objects. In a well-known study, Shepard and Metzler (1971)
asked participants to judge whether two rotated 3D cube figures depicted identical or different
objects and observed that the response time (RT) was linearly proportional to the angle of rotation
from the original position. This result suggested that participants mentally rotated one item in ref-
erence to the other and that the degree of rotation of an object from the original directly correlates
with the length of time required for a participant to judge if the two items are identical or different.
This mental rotation of abstract objects induces an object-based transformation, for which the rela-
tionship between the environment and the egocentric frame of the observer remains fixed, while
each of their relations to the object reference frame are updated (Amorim, Isableu, & Jarraya,
2006; Steggemann et al., 2011). This type of mental transformation classically generates a linear
increase in the RTs as the angular disparity increases (Cooper, 1975; Shepard & Metzler, 1971;
Steggemann et al., 2011). Other mental rotation tasks require egocentric perspective transforma-
tions, for which the relationship between the environment and the object reference frames remains
fixed, while each of their relations to the egocentric reference frame of the observer are updated
(Amorim et al., 2006; Jola & Mast, 2005; Steggemann et al., 2011). In these mental body rotation
tasks, participants are asked to judge the laterality of full human body postures with one arm out-
stretched. In contrast to the mental rotation of abstracts objects, RTs are generally independent of
rotation angle (Wraga, 2003; Wraga, Creem, & Proffitt, 2000; Wraga, Creem-Regehr, & Proffitt,
2004; Zacks, Mires, Tversky, & Hazeltine, 2002). Some studies of mental body rotations showed con-
stant RTs at low angles but a sudden increase with greater angles (Graf, 1994; Keehner, Guerin,
Miller, Turk, & Hegarty, 2006; Kozhevnikov & Hegarty, 2001; Michelon & Zacks, 2006). These find-
ings show that the classical linear increase in the RTs with increasing rotation angles is not inevi-
table in mental body rotation tasks; even if some studies showed a linear increase in the RTs
with increasing rotation angles, the slopes were less steep than those reported for abstract objects
rotation (Easton & Sholl, 1995; Parsons, 1987; Rieser, 1989).
The above-mentioned differences in RT patterns depend on the spatial frames of reference involved
in the mental rotation processes, i.e., object-related vs. egocentric frames of reference (Preuss, Harris,
& Mast, 2013; Zacks et al., 2002). Using human body postures, Parsons (1987) showed a correlation
between the time required for participants to imagine themselves in the position of the human-body
stimulus and the time required to make a handedness judgment of the same figure during a mental
body rotation task. He proposed that the participants performed the task by imagining themselves
in the position of the body figure (i.e., egocentric perspective transformation). Therefore, this egocen-
tric mental transformation would require embodied transformations and more specifically, the map-
ping of body axes (head–feet, front–back, and left–right) onto the stimuli defined as a spatial
embodiment prior to performing the mental perspective transformation, which is defined as motoric
embodiment (Amorim et al., 2006; Jola & Mast, 2005; Parsons, 1987; Steggemann et al., 2011). Thus,
this embodied process relies on one’s long-term knowledge of body structure (Amorim et al., 2006)
and can be modulated by the motor processes because mental rotation rates are slower for impossible
body postures compared to possible ones (Petit & Harris, 2005).
The influence of motor processes on the mental rotation performance is another noteworthy
issue. The first study to investigate the relationship between motor processes and mental rotation
was proposed by Wexler, Kosslyn, and Berthoz (1998), who asked participants to simultaneously
perform manual and mental rotations of a joystick and observed the slower rotation times when
manual and mental rotations were performed in opposite directions compared to when the rotation
directions were identical. In accordance with the authors’ hypothesis, this result suggests that men-
tal rotation processes represent covert motor rotation. Similarly, Wohlschläger and Wohlschläger’s
research (1998) demonstrated that concordant directions in simultaneous manual and mental
rotations facilitated mental rotation; conversely, discordant rotation directions inhibited mental
rotation. These results suggest a common process that controls both overt and covert object
reorientation dynamics.
H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68 59
The influence of motor tasks on mental rotation encouraged some authors to investigate the effect
of a wider motor activity (i.e., physical activity) on mental rotation performance. A recent study by
Pietsch and Jansen (2012) reported that students who study sports and athletics exhibit better mental
rotation abilities than students in science education. In addition, physical activity, such as juggling,
was found to enhance performances in a mental object rotation task (Jansen, Titze, & Heil, 2009).
Undergraduate students performed better in a mental object rotation task after 10 months of training
that included highly coordinated and rotational movements, such as wrestling, than after a period of
training of the same duration that did not include these movements, such as running (Moreau et al.,
2012). Taken together, these studies revealed that training or the practice of physical activities
influences mental rotation performance.
Further studies focused on the effect of an extended practice of physical activities that involve full
body rotations by investigating the mental body rotation performances among rotational experts.
Ozel, Larue, and Molinaro (2002) first compared the mental rotation performances of experts in phys-
ical body rotations (i.e., gymnasts) and athletes who rarely execute physical body rotations in their
activity to those of non-athletes. The results showed that the athletes performed better than the
non-athletes, but no difference was observed between the two groups of athletes. This study showed
a general effect of physical practice, but failed to highlight an effect of the frequent execution of phys-
ical body rotations on the mental rotation performances. This shortcoming may be due to the nature of
the task used in their study (i.e., mental object rotation), which required object-based transformations.
The object-based transformation is not an embodied process and does not allow the implementation
of one’s motor expertise during a mental rotation task (Jola & Mast, 2005; Steggemann et al., 2011).
Steggemann et al. (2011) highlighted that the selective effect of motor expertise can be observed in
a mental body rotation task that requires egocentric perspective transformations. In their study, gym-
nasts, which were defined as full body rotation experts, outperformed other athletes in a left–right
judgment task (i.e., perspective transformation task) that involved body images that were presented
in 135°and 180°in-plane orientations. This selective effect would illustrate the specific expertise of
gymnasts with extreme in-plane body orientations (Steggemann et al., 2011). However, different
results were obtained in Jola and Mast’s study (2005) for another type of motor experts (i.e., dancers).
In their study, Jola and Mast asked expert dancers and non-experts to solve a mental body rotation
task using body postures rotated in-plane. The RTs and error rates did not significantly differ between
experts and non-experts. The authors suggested that the test stimuli (i.e., line drawings of the human
body rotated in picture plane) would not encourage the use of dancers’ specific expertise, which is the
movement around a different rotational axis (e.g., the longitudinal body axis during pirouettes).
Various physical activities appear to differentially affect the mental rotation abilities. One way to
better understand the interplay between motor expertise and mental rotation is to investigate the
effects of specific components of the physical activity in a mental body rotation task. In the current
study, we focused on the rotation axis and the primordially solicited limb during practice in soccer
and handball players.
In their study, Steggemann et al. (2011) considered handball and soccer players to be non-experts
of rotational movements because their activities do not require in-plane body rotations. While in-
plane orientations beyond 90°are indeed rare in handball and soccer practice, orientations below
90°are quite frequent. In addition, soccer and handball players constantly experience in-depth
rotations because their activities involve various twists in the air that require rotations around the
longitudinal body axis. To our knowledge, only one recent study compared the mental rotation task
performance between soccer players and non-athletes in a task that involved cubes and human body
figures as stimuli (Jansen, Lehmann, & Van Doren, 2012). The results revealed that soccer players per-
formed faster than non-athletes in mental rotation tasks that involved embodiment (i.e., human body
figures). This finding seems to support the idea that egocentric skills are developed in this physical
activity, even if the activity is classically known as an activity with a high exocentric component
(Jansen et al., 2012).
Because practicing movements around one axis may create difficulties in performing the same
movements around another axis (Jola & Mast, 2005) and in-plane rotations and in-depth rotations
partly involve different cognitive processes (ter Horst, van Lier, & Steenbergen, 2010), we
hypothesized that the sensorimotor experience related to the rotation axes that are largely engaged
60 H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68
in a physical activity could influence the mental rotation performance. Consequently, we investigated
the effect of the rotation axis by comparing performances in a mental rotation task using images of
handball and soccer movements that involved the rotation of two body axes (in-depth and in-plane)
between high level handball players, soccer players and gymnasts.
Another specific feature of soccer and handball that may potentially influence mental rotation is
the extensive use of two different limbs. This feature is often neglected in mental rotation tasks.
Because the mental representation of the body is continuously updated with regard to its position
or movements of body parts (Ionta & Blanke, 2009), handball players are expected to develop an
increased perceptual sensitivity to the movements of their arms, and the same can be expected in
soccer players for movements of their legs. Gymnasts are expected to develop a similar perceptual
sensitivity in their arms and legs because gymnastics involves both of these body parts. As most
mental rotation studies use hand laterality judgments, which is a task that does not take into account
the limbs that are mainly involved in certain physical activities (i.e., as a more exclusive use of the legs
in soccer), we investigated whether the predominant use of the arms or legs influences the mental
rotation performance in a laterality judgment task.
We hypothesized that differences in the performance between different groups of athletes will sug-
gest that these components influence mental rotational processes via sensorimotor experience related
to the physical activity if the mental rotation tasks include components that are specific to the studied
physical activities. More precisely, we expected that handball and soccer players, who are frequently
exposed to in-depth rotations, would judge the in-depth rotated images more quickly than in-plane
rotated images in the present study. We also expected that the amount of time required for gymnasts
to judge in-depth or in-plane rotated images would not significantly differ. In addition, different RT
patterns that depend on the solicited limb during each physical activity will yield information regard-
ing the importance of this component in mental rotation.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
A total of 55 males (M
age
= 22.8 years, SD = 2.9 years) voluntarily participated in the experiment. All
participants had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Each participant was unaware of the purpose
of the experiment and provided informed consent before being tested.
Three groups of athletes were formed: 19 soccer players, 21 handball players and 15 gymnasts.
Table 1 depicts the mean age and training experience of the three groups. The inclusion criteria for
each group required that participants were currently practicing their activity and that they trained
regularly over the last six years (for at least 8 h per week). In addition, each participant reported
having no practical experience in the other groups’ activity or at the most, only minimal experience
from school lessons. The three groups did not significantly differ in age, F(2,52) = 0.959, p= .390 or
mean training experience, F(2,52) = 1.347, p= .269.
2.2. Stimuli
The stimuli used in the current study included images of handball and soccer strike moves being
executed with either the left or right arms or legs. The images were rotated in eight orientations
(0°,45°,90°, 135°, 180°, 225°, 270°, and 315°) about two axes: in picture plane and in-depth.
Table 1
Mean age and training experience of the three groups of athletes.
Age Training experience
Mean (Years) SD (Years) Mean (Years) SD (Years)
Soccer players 23.6 2.9 12.8 2.7
Handball players 22.3 3.2 12.1 2.8
Gymnasts 22.6 2.6 13.6 2.3
H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68 61
Images of left and right strike moves were produced using mirror images of each other such that
each left–right pair of stimuli was identical except for the change in position. Accordingly, 64 different
stimuli (2 sports 2 laterality 2 rotation axes 8 orientations) were generated (Fig. 1). The images
were 15 cm in size and presented on the center of a black background. The stimuli were displayed on a
personal computer via proprietary software developed by our laboratory. This software program was
developed to record the accuracy of each response as well as the response time (i.e., from stimulus
onset to button-press).
2.3. Procedure and task
The participants were seated in front of a computer at a distance of 60 cm in darkened and
separate rooms of a gymnasium. For the 20 training trials, the experimenter remained in the
room to ensure that participants followed the instructions and to provide task instructions as
necessary. After training, the experimenter left the room and was absent for the duration of the test
period.
Participants were asked to judge as quickly and accurately as possible whether the left or right arm
was performing the strike move that was presented using their index finger to press either the left or a
right button on the keyboard. The left and right buttons were color-coded and labeled as ‘‘left strike’’
and ‘‘right strike’’. The order of the test trials was randomized using the proprietary software.
Moreover, each orientation was displayed three times but not more than twice successively, such that
no image of the same sport (handball or soccer strike) was presented in more than three consecutive
trials. This approach resulted in a total of 192 trials (64 stimuli three representations of each
orientation). The trials were divided into two test blocks of 96 trials each.
Each trial began with a blank screen presented for 2000 ms, after which a black fixation cross
appeared for 500 ms. After fixation, the test image was presented for a maximum of 5000 ms, and
the next trial began if a response was given.
Fig. 1. Examples of stimuli corresponding to a handball strike and soccer strike rotated over 135°in-plane and in-depth: RS)
Right Strike (right hand outstretched); LS) Left Strike (left hand outstretched).
62 H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68
2.4. Data analysis
Only data from correct responses were included in the analyses, and RT outliers were excluded
(faster than 300 ms and slower than 3000 ms) according to previous studies of mental rotation using
human body figures (Amorim et al., 2006; Steggemann et al., 2011).
Two ANOVAs were conducted on the reaction time (RTs) and error rates data using the rotation axis
(in-plane, in-depth), sport move (handball strike, soccer strike), and orientation (0°,45°,90°, 135°,
180°) as within-subject factors and sport (handball, soccer, gymnastics) as a between-subject factor.
We computed descriptive data, Bonferroni post hoc tests and deviation contrasts of RTs to test for
linear trends.
3. Results
3.1. Response times (RTs)
The results revealed a significant main effect of orientation on the mental rotation performance,
F(4,208) = 13.816, p< .001,
g
2
= .21. A contrast analysis showed a linear increase in the RTs as the rota-
tion angle increased, F(1,52) = 17.403, p< .001,
g
2
= .25. The two-way interaction between orientation
and rotation axis reached significance, F(4,208) = 14.700, p< .001,
g
2
= .22. Separate contrasts revealed
a significant linear increase in the RTs as the in-plane rotations increased, F(1,52) = 19.239, p< .001,
g
2
= .27. Such a linear trend was absent when the stimuli were rotated in-depth, F(1,52) = 0.730,
p= .397,
g
2
= .01 (Fig. 2).
The sport (i.e., soccer, handball, gymnastic) did not exert a significant effect, F(2,52) = 2.111,
p= .131,
g
2
= .07. As expected, the rotation axis influenced the mental rotation performances,
F(1,52) = 16.868, p< .001,
g
2
= .25, such that shorter RTs were observed for in-depth rotations
(M= 930 ms, SD = 28) than for in-plane rotations (M= 1008 ms, SD = 35). More interestingly, a signif-
icant two-way interaction between the rotation axis and sport was found, F(2,52) = 4.899, p< .05,
g
2
= .16, which revealed that soccer players and handball players performed faster for in-depth rota-
tions than for in-plane rotations, p< .01 and p< .001. The same interaction was not significant for
gymnasts (Fig. 3).
In addition, the sport movement exerted a significant main effect, F(1,52) = 21.057, p< .001,
g
2
= .29. The RTs for soccer strikes (M= 944 ms, SD = 28) were shorter than for handball strikes
(M= 994 ms, SD = 34). The two-way interaction between the factors ‘‘sport move’’ and ‘‘sport’’ was sig-
nificant, F(2,52) = 14.574, p< .001,
g
2
= .36. Soccer players performed faster for soccer strike images
Fig. 2. Response time according to the two-way interaction between orientation and rotation axis.
H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68 63
than for handball strike images, p< .001. However, this difference was not significant in gymnasts and
handball players (Fig. 4). Moreover, the two-way interaction between ‘‘sport move’’ and the rotation
axis reached significance, F(1,52) = 4.737, p< .05,
g
2
= .08. Post hoc tests revealed that the significant
difference in the RTs between soccer strikes and handball strikes was greater for in-plane rotations
than for in-depth rotations.
The two-way interaction between the sport movement and orientation reached significance,
F(4,208) = 10.183, p< .001,
g
2
= .16. Separate contrasts revealed a linear increase in the RTs as the
rotation angles of the soccer strike stimuli, F(1,52) = 9.730, p= .01,
g
2
= .16, and the handball strike
stimuli, F(1,52) = 20.445, p< .001,
g
2
= .28, increased. However, the handball strike stimuli showed
steeper increases in the RTs for increasing rotation angles than soccer strike stimuli, t(54) = 3.744,
p< .001.
3.2. Error rates
The error rates were included in the analyses to quantify the response accuracy. A significant
effect of the orientation was observed, F(4,204) = 7.432, p< .001,
g
2
= .13. A contrast analysis
Fig. 3. Response time according to the two-way interaction between rotation axis and sport.
Fig. 4. Response time according to the two-way interaction between sport move and sport.
64 H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68
showed a linear increase in the error rates as the rotation angle increased, F(1,52) = 9.844, p< .01,
g
2
= .16. The interaction between the orientation and rotation axis reached significance,
F(4,204) = 9.529, p< .001,
g
2
= .16. Separate contrasts revealed a significant linear increase in the
error rates as the in-plane rotations increased, F(1,52) = 20.564, p< .001,
g
2
= .28. Such a linear
increase was not observed when the stimuli were rotated in-depth, F(1,52) = 1.256, p= .268,
g
2
= .024 (Fig. 5).
The main effect of the rotation axis reached significance, F(1,52) = 21.510, p< .001,
g
2
= .30.
In-plane rotations were significantly more error prone (M= 4.63%) compared to in-depth rotations
(M= 2.74%). More interestingly, the interaction between the rotation axis and sport was significant,
F(2,51) = 5.213, p< .01,
g
2
= .17. Post hoc tests revealed that handball and soccer players committed
significantly more errors for in-plane rotations than for in-depth rotations, p< .01, while the error
rates of gymnasts were equal for in-plane and in-depth rotations (Fig. 6). In addition, handball players
committed more errors than gymnasts for in-plane rotations, p< .05, and soccer players also
committed more errors than gymnasts for in-plane rotations but the difference was not significant,
p= .063.
Fig. 5. Error rates according to the two-way interaction between orientation and rotation axis.
Fig. 6. Error rates according to the two-way interaction between rotation axis and sport.
H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68 65
4. Discussion
In the present study, we investigated the effect of the specific components of motor expertise on
the mental rotation ability by studying the influence of the rotation-axis and the limb predominantly
involved during a mental body rotation task. To address this aim, handball players, soccer players and
gymnasts, whose physical activity differently involved these components, performed a mental rota-
tion task using full body posture stimuli that depicted handball strike moves (arm movement) and
soccer strike moves (leg movement) that were rotated over different in-plane and in-depth
orientations.
The results showed a linear trend of the RTs and error rates as a function of the rotation angle. As
mentioned previously, the literature did not show consistent RT and error rate patterns in perspective
transformation tasks contrary to object-based transformation tasks. Interestingly, the RTs and error
rates for in-plane rotations, but not for in-depth rotations, showed a linear trend, suggesting different
mental transformations according to the rotation axis. The in-plane rotations revealed the classical
linear increase in the RTs and error rates. We suspect that perspective transformations to adopt
in-plane body orientations rely mainly on mental rotation processes (Parsons, 1987; Wraga, 2003;
Wraga et al., 2000, 2004; Zacks et al., 2002). However, the RT and error rate patterns for in-depth rota-
tions were clearly distinguishable from the classical linear increase reported for object rotation, which
suggests that the perspective transformation to adopt in-depth orientations relies more on embodied
perspective transformations (Creem et al., 2001; Parsons, 1987; Zacks et al., 2002). However, the
preference for different strategies according to the rotation axis cannot be completely specified based
on the current findings and thus warrants further investigation.
The mental rotations were faster for in-depth-rotated stimuli than for in-plane-rotated stimuli.
This result is consistent with the experience gained both in everyday life and during physical practice
because body rotations around the longitudinal body axis (in-depth) are more frequent than rotations
over the sagittal body axis (in-plane). Aligning the mental representation of one’s body with the in-
depth rotated stimuli leads to faster mental rotation because the participant may perform a simple
rotation over the longitudinal body axis until it is aligned with the stimulus or may only drag the men-
tal image of his body forward to align it with the largest orientations, corresponding to back views of
the body. In-depth rotations would thus rely more on perspective translation, which is easier and
requires less processing time than perspective rotation (Creem-Regehr, 2003; Rieser, 1989). Aligning
one’s mental body image with a human figure rotated in-plane necessitated additional rotations over
the sagittal body axes and therefore required more time to be completed.
We expected mental rotation processes to be influenced by the specific components of given phys-
ical activities, such as the frequency of body rotations around specific axes. We hypothesized that soc-
cer and handball players will perform better using in-depth-rotated stimuli and that gymnasts would
perform equally well in in-plane and in-depth rotations because they execute movements around
both body axes over a wide range of orientations, including upside-down body positions. The results
confirmed this hypothesis because soccer and handball players performed in-depth rotations faster
than in-plane rotations and no difference was observed between the two ration axes for gymnasts.
This finding supports a close relationship between the physical movement and mental execution
(Decety, Jeannerod, & Prablanc, 1989; Decety & Michel, 1989; Gerardin et al., 2000; Jeannerod,
2001; Roland, Skinhøj, Lassen, & Larsen, 1980; Stephan et al., 1995) and highlights that the specific
components of a physical activity influence the mental rotation performance. However, contrary to
the study by Steggemann et al. (2011), the group of gymnasts was not significantly faster than the
other athletes (i.e., handball and soccer players) during in-plane rotations. Given that soccer and
handball players committed more errors for in-plane rotations than gymnasts, the most plausible
explanation is that soccer and handball players used other strategies based on the visual appearance
of the stimuli (Jola & Mast, 2005) or engaged fast guesses leading to similar RTs than those of gymnasts
while generating more errors. Another explanation relies on the fact that some activities in the
non-expert group studied by Steggemann and colleagues (track and field, rowing, and swimming)
developed poorer spatial abilities than handball and soccer.
66 H. Habacha et al. / Human Movement Science 37 (2014) 58–68
The type of stimulus also influences the mental rotation performances: mental rotations were
slower for handball strike moves than for soccer strike moves. More importantly, among the three
groups of athletes, only soccer players performed significantly slower for handball strike move. This
finding partially supports our hypothesis regarding the specific effects of physical activity on mental
rotation, because the least use of arms in soccer players appears to influence their mental rotation
performance. Indeed, a mental rotation task that requires the athlete to mentally adopt a full body
posture, including arm movements, may be difficult for soccer players. Despite a slight difference,
handball players did not perform slower for soccer strike moves than handball strike moves. This find-
ing may be explained by the fact that handball players use their legs to defend or perform technical
gestures, such as to feint to dodge the opponent, and these movements may provide a certain type
of expertise with leg movements. As expected, gymnasts performed the two types of strike moves
equally well because gymnastics involve the movement of both the arms and legs.
Independent of sport, the current study allowed the investigation of the influence of additional
unaddressed stimuli features and their combination on the mental body rotation performances in a
single study. To our knowledge, previous studies have not investigated the influence of human body
orientations ranging from 0 degrees to 180 degrees around two rotation axes on the mental body rota-
tion ability in the same participants. The results showed that the mental rotation of handball strikes
required more time than that of soccer strikes, especially for in-plane rotations. Previous studies have
demonstrated that RT patterns change as a result of modifying the participant’s posture (de Lange,
Helmich, & Toni, 2006; Helmich, de Lange, Bloem, & Toni, 2007; Ionta & Blanke, 2009; Ionta,
Fourkas, Fiorio, & Aglioti, 2007; Parsons, 1994; Sirigu & Duhamel, 2001). In the current study, aligning
the mental image of one’s own body with the handball strike figure may require simulated hand
movements, which are subject to increased biomechanical constraints because the hand is placed
on the keyboard. Thus, transformations around more than one body axis are necessary to align the
hand with that of the handball figure. However, the alignment of the mental image of one’s leg with
that of the stimulus figure may require a simple transformation and thus less time.
The present study confirms a relationship between the mental imagery of movement and skill.
More specifically, it demonstrated that some important components of a physical activity (such as
the rotation axis and limb movements) influence the mental rotation performance. While the body
rotation axes clearly influenced the mental rotation performance, the influence of the predominant
limb was partially evidenced in the present study. Indeed, the mental rotations of human body figures
with an outstretched arm may cause difficulties for soccer players. In addition, the similar RTs
observed in handball players for handball and soccer moves suggests that arm and leg movements
may be more important in handball practice than initially supposed. Other sports that require the
excessive use of one limb would be interesting to study to assess the contribution of the limb to men-
tal rotation. To establish further the links between specific motor skills and mental rotation in sports,
an accurate description of the physical activity and the development of mental rotation tasks that
involve manipulation of the major components of this physical activity are needed.
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