Mental rotation of static and dynamic figures

Previous studies comparing performance on standard (i.e., static) and dynamic spatial test items have concluded that the two item types measure different abilities. Such conclusions about the uniqueness of static and dynamic spatial abilities seem premature, however, since only a limited number of dynamic spatial tasks have been utilized in research and these have differed markedly from their static counterparts. In the present studies, tasks were designed to require a common mental operation (mental rotation) under static and dynamic conditions. Correlations between static and dynamic performance ranged from .80 to .90. This appears to suggest that the emergence of a unique dynamic ability factor depends on the utilization of certain specialized tasks (e.g., arrival time tasks) with mental operations much different than those required by conventional spatial tests. In other words, it is apparently the requirement for different cognitive processes and not the processing of stimulus motion per se that distinguishes performance on some dynamic tasks from performance on some standard static tasks.