The ability to mentally rotate objects in space is a fundamental cognitive capacity. Previous studies showed that the time to rotate the image of a figure to match another increases progressively with angular disparity. It remains unclear whether this increase in response time with angular disparity could reflect increased processing operations or more cognitive effort instead of a sustained use of a ‘rotate’ mechanism without a change in workload. We collected response times as well as pupillary responses that index cognitive workload and activity in the brainstem’s locus coeruleus, from a sample of 38 young adults performing a chronometric mental rotations task. The results showed the expected increase in response times but no increase in pupil diameters between 60, 120, and 180 degrees of rotation, suggesting no significant changes in arousal levels when rotating figures near and far. This indicates that during mental rotation the load on cognitive resources remains constant irrespective of angular distance.

精神上旋转空间物体的能力是一项基本的认知能力。先前的研究表明，旋转人物图像以匹配另一个图像的时间随着角度差异而逐渐增加。不清楚的是，具有角差的响应时间的增加是否可以反映出增加的处理操作或更多的认知努力，而不是持续使用“旋转”机制而不改变工作量。我们从38位执行计时精神旋转任务的年轻成年人的样本中收集了反应时间以及反映大脑干蓝斑轨迹中认知工作量和活动的瞳孔反应。结果表明，预期的响应时间会增加，但在60、120和180度旋转时瞳孔直径不会增加，提示当旋转人物远近时，唤醒水平没有明显变化。这表明在心理旋转过程中，不管角距离如何，认知资源上的负载保持恒定。