Cognitive Ability and Whole-Body Rotation (Cognitief Vermogen en Rotatie van het Lichaam)
Abstract
A series of studies examining how whole-body rotation affects cognitive processing is summarized, and a new experiment is described. The main question was whether rotations of the body capture attention and reduce cognitive processing capacity. An additional question was whether the attention caught is resource specific, that is, whether particular cognitive capacities are more affected than others. Previous experiments revealed that cognitive processing comes to a complete standstill while body rotations are made actively on a swivel chair. The duration of the suspension depended on the nature of the cognitive task suggesting resource specificity. In the present experiment a rotating chair was used on which subjects were rotated while performing on spatial and nonspatial tasks. Performance losses were small and limited to the spatial task. The conclusion based on the whole series of experiments is that body rotations capture general as well specific processing capacity, but that the amount of capacity caught is small, or the duration of capacity capture is short. Large attention capture is expected only if subjects execute the rotations actively. The striking similarity with the effects of eye movements on cognitive processing suggests that the active search for new information in the visual environment is the real reason why whole-body rotation can be so disturbing
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA267095
Entities
People
- L. C. Boer