Does Body Awareness Influence Visual Spatial Intelligence
Year: 2015
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The embodiment approach suggests that processes in the body influence cognitive performance. Due to this in the present study, female patients with high body awareness-elite athletes and patients with Anorexia Nervosa- as well as healthy controls performed a mental rotation task with different kinds of stimuli. Mental rotation is the ability to imagine objects from different perspectives. The results show that both experimental groups revealed a better mental rotation performance than the control group in form of faster reaction times. This result is independent of the kind of stimuli, i.e., if the mental rotation requires the transformation of the self (egocentric) or the object (object-based). We further found that BMI and IQ correlated with reaction time. Because there was no difference between the elite athletes (positive body awareness) compared to the patients with Anorexia Nervosa (negative body awareness) the results suggest that any occupation with the body relates to visual spatial intelligence. This result is discussed regarding its importance in the educational context.
Authors: Sandra Kaltner, Petra Jansen
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2176803576