Impact of card rotation on the frequency of Rorschach reflection responses

In this article, we describe the impact of Rorschach (Exner, 2003) card rotation and orientation preference on reflection responses. We anticipated exposure to sideways-orientated cards would facilitate landscape-type reflections, particularly for cards people find appealing to view sideways. When we examined 4 experimental conditions using an undergraduate sample, results in Experiments 1 (n = 123) and 2 (n = 38) showed that viewing the cards sideways produced a large increase in reflections. In Experiment 3 (n = 69), we examined preferences to view each card in a particular orientation. Cards producing higher rates of landscape reflections in the experimental conditions that encouraged turning were strongly correlated with preferences to view those cards sideways. The results imply reflections are in part a function of stimulus properties from viewing the card in a rotated orientation and not just the personal characteristics of the test taker.