Mental Object Rotation and Egocentric Body Transformation: Two Dissociable Processes?

An important question in studies on mental rotation is whether the mental object rotation and the egocentric body transformation rely on dissociable mechanisms. We tested non-dancers and professional dancers as experts in the mental object rotation task (MORT, 3D-cubes used by Shepard & Metzler, 1971) and the mental body transformation task (MBRT, line drawings of human bodies similar to those used by Parsons, 1987). The cubes and body figures were presented in exactly the same rotation conditions; in the picture plane, 0 degree, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, 135 degrees, and 180 degrees, and in combination with a rotation in depth, 0 degree (the stimuli are rotated in the picture plane only) and 180 degrees. We could replicate the linear increase in RT with increasing angle for the cubes whereas the RT for rotated body figures increased for not depth-rotated bodies only (back view). Though, the RTs for inverted body figures were faster when they were rotated in depth (front view) compared to when they were rotated in the picture plane only (back view). This finding suggests that participants use different strategies depending on the perceived orientation of the stimulus. The results indicate impaired performance in the MORT for the experts.     

The role of motor processes in mental rotation: selective shaping of cognitive processing via specific sensorimotor experience

The involvement of motor processes in mental rotation is experience-dependent: different levels of expertise in sensorimotor interactions lead to different strategies in mental rotation. In the present study, wrestlers, gymnasts, and nonathletes physically rotated objects that were either light (wooden) or heavy (lead) but otherwise having the same sizes and shapes. They then performed a mental rotation task using photographs of these objects in which the material and therefore the weight was visible. I hypothesized that wrestlers would rely more heavily on experience-based sensorimotor strategies in performing mental rotation because during their athletic practice they not only manipulate external “objects” (i.e., their opponent) but also have to plan future actions taking into account past experience of these “objects” (for example their weight). All participants reported that lead objects were harder to physically rotate than wooden ones. However, only wrestlers mentally rotated lead objects more slowly than wooden ones—as they would if they were physically rotating them—suggesting the involvement of motor processes. These findings show that the involvement of motor processes in mental rotation depends on specific rather than mere sensorimotor experience.     

轴系回转轴线指向误差测量方法

回转轴线指向误差是扫描机构的重要性能指标之一,对遥感成像质量有明显影响。针对回转轴线无法直接精确测量的问题,提出了基于平面反射镜、电子自准直仪的测量系统。在详细分析平面反射镜法线与回转轴线间关系的基础上,对测得的镜面法线指向数据进行傅里叶级数展开,通过零次项去除和一次谐波分量误差分离处理,得到真实的回转轴线指向误差。利用该方法对某扫描轴系实物进行了测量,结果表明:该方法测得的回转轴线误差为39″,满足系统的指标要求,相对于常规处理方法在精度和准确度上有所提高。     

Preferred and Alternative Mental Models in Spatial Reasoning

The mental model theory postulates that spatial reasoning relies on the construction, inspection, and the variation of mental models. Experiment 1 shows that in reasoning problems with multiple solutions, reasoners construct only a single model that is preferred over others. Experiment 2 shows that inferences conforming to these preferred mental models (PMM) are easier than inferences that are valid for alternatives. Experiments 3 and 4 support the idea that model variation consists of a model revision process. The process usually starts with the PMM and then constructs alternative models by local transformations. Models which are difficult to reach are more likely to be neglected than models which are only minor revisions of the PMM.     

Learning to Reach to Locations Encoded from Imaging Displays

We examined the use of hand gestures while people solved spatial reasoning problem in which they had to infer motion from static diagrams (mental animation problems). In Experiment 1, participants were asked to think aloud while solving mental animation problems. They gestured on more than 90% of problems, and most gestures expressed information about the component motions that was not stated in words. Two further experiments examined whether the gestures functioned in the mechanical inference process, or whether they merely served functions of expressing or communicating the results of this process. In these experiments, we examined the effects of instructions to think aloud, restricting participants' hand motions, and secondary tasks on mental animation performance. Although participants who were instructed to think aloud gestured more than control groups, some gestures occurred even in control conditions. A concurrent spatial tapping task impaired performance on mechanical reasoning, whereas a simple tapping task and restricting hand motions did not. These results indicate that gestures are a natural way of expressing the results of mental animation processes and suggest that spatial working memory and premotor representations are involved in mental animation. They provide no direct evidence that gestures are functional in the thought process itself, but do not rule out a role for overt gestures in this type of spatial thinking.     

Navigating in a Virtual 3D Maze: Body and Gravity,Two Possible Reference Frames for Perceiving and Memorizing

Although recent studies have brought new insight into the mechanisms of spatial memory and cognitive strategies during navigation, most of these studies have concerned two-dimensional navigation and little is known regarding the problem of three-dimensional (3D) spatial memory. We found previously that memorizing complex 3D-structured corridors was easier with natural self-motion that included only yaw turns, and vertical translations facing the walls at vertical sections. This suggests that when only sideways (yaw) mental rotations had to be performed in order to shift from the experienced egocentric to the allocentric reference frame where recognition was tested, memorization of such corridors was improved. In the present investigation we studied the effect of tilting separately subject's body axis and self-motion's rotation axis relative to gravity. With a computerized 3D reconstruction task of the maze, we examined whether having any single rotation axis was enough to facilitate this reference shift or, if not, what aspect of the terrestrial condition-where visual displacement rotation, gravity and body axes were aligned-led to better performance. Field dependent (FD) and independent (FI) subjects, as determined by the rod and frame test, showed distinct effects of the navigation conditions. The FD group performance was markedly impaired when gravity and body axis were in conflict, independently of the rotation axis, whereas FI performance only slightly worsened when the body was tilted and the rotation axis remained aligned with gravity. Moreover, tilting the body in the control condition only worsened performance for the FD group.     

三轴稳定地球同步卫星动量轮转速变化研究

对三轴稳定地球同步卫星中用于姿态控制的偏置动量轮转速变化问题进行研究。通过分析动量轮转速实际测量数据,得出太阳辐射压力影响转速变化的规律,并利用理论分析进行验证。在分析转速变化规律的基础上提出动量轮转速控制指导方案,并将其应用在实际三轴稳定地球同步卫星长期管理中,取得良好的控制效果。     

Mental representation of spatial cues in microgravity: Writing and drawing tests

Humans have mental representation of their environment based on sensory information and experience. A series of experiments has been designed to allow the identification of disturbances in the mental representation of three-dimensional space during space flight as a consequence of the absence of the gravitational frame of reference. This NASA/ESA-funded research effort includes motor tests complemented by psychophysics measurements, designed to distinguish the effects of cognitive versus perceptual-motor changes due to microgravity exposure. Preliminary results have been obtained during the microgravity phase of parabolic flight. These results indicate that the vertical height of handwritten characters and drawn objects is reduced in microgravity compared to normal gravity, suggesting that the mental representation of the height of objects and the environment change during short-term microgravity. Identifying lasting abnormalities in the mental representation of spatial cues will establish the scientific and technical foundation for development of preflight and in-flight training and rehabilitative schemes, enhancing astronaut performance of perceptual-motor tasks, for example, interaction with robotic systems during exploration-class missions.     

高精确度数字式转速测量技术的研究

介绍了一种利用单片机技术实现高精确度数字式转速测量系统的方法。这种转速测量系统具有测量精确度高、采样速度快、测量范围宽和测量精确度与被测转速无关等优点，具有广阔的应用前景。     

地球自转对光机扫描仪摆扫成像的影响分析

地球自转会影响地物相对光机扫描仪的运动。不同纬度的地速不同,地速的变化会造成扫描条带畸变、相邻条带错动和重叠率的变化。文章研究了地球自转的变化规律,从扫描条带畸变、相邻条带错动和重叠率变化3方面因素研究了地速对光机扫描仪成像的影响。最后,针对这些影响提出了校正建议。     

步进电机转速稳定度的测定与分析

在分析低速扫描中步进电机转速质量影响的基础上，介绍了用光电编码器测量转速稳定度的方法以及判定标准，并讨论了不同条件下步距角、惯性负载和微步距驱动对步进电机转速稳定度的影响。     

Mental spatial transformations of objects and perspective

This study sought evidence for the independenceof two classes of mental spatialtransformation: object-based spatialtransformations and egocentric perspectivetransformations. Two tasks were designed toselectively elicit these two transformationsusing the same materials, participants, andtask parameters: one required same-differentjudgments about pairs of pictures, while theother required left-right judgments aboutsingle pictures. For pictures of human bodies,the two tasks showed strikingly differentpatterns of response time as a function ofstimulus orientation. Moreover, acrossindividuals, the two tasks had differentrelationships to psychometric tests of spatialability. The chronometric and individualdifference data converge withneuropsychological and neuroimaging data insuggesting that different mental spatialtransformations are performed by dissociableneural systems.     

基于惯性系的双轴旋转式惯导系统转位方法

针对双轴旋转式惯导系统中不能自动补偿标度因数误差与地球自转耦合误差的问题,提出了一种改进的转位方法。该方法不增加转轴数目,通过补偿地球自转在转轴平面的投影抑制耦合误差项,计算结果表明该方法适用于激光陀螺惯导系统和光纤陀螺惯导系统。利用改进的转位方法对双轴旋转式惯导系统进行仿真,仿真结果验证了该方法的可行性。研究结果为双轴旋转式惯导系统的工程设计和改进提供了一定的理论支持。     

Influence of graviceptives cues at different level of visual information processing: the effect of prolonged weightlessness

We evaluated the influence of prolonged weightlessness on the performance of visual tasks in the course of the Russian-French missions ANTARES, Post-ANTARES and ALTAIR aboard the MIR station. Eight cosmonauts were subjects in two experiments executed pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight sessions.

In the first experiment, cosmonauts performed a task of symmetry detection in 2-D polygons. The results indicate that this detection is locked in a head retinal reference frame rather than in an environmentally defined one as meridional orientations of symmetry axis (vertical and horizontal) elicited faster response times than oblique ones. However, in weightlessness the saliency of a retinally vertical axis of symmetry is no longer significantly different from an horizontal axis. In the second experiment, cosmonauts performed a mental rotation task in which they judged whether two 3-D objects presented in different orientations were identical. Performance on this task is basically identical in weightlessness and normal gravity.     

一种单子样旋转矢量姿态算法

旋转矢量姿态算法可有效抑制高动态环境下捷联惯导系统(SINS)产生的圆锥误差。当 直接应用多子样旋转矢量姿态算法时,会降低系统姿态更新频率;若要保持姿态更新频率, 则需要提高采样频率,从而增加了导航计算机的硬件负担,并导致量化误差突出。针对上述 不足,提出了一种利用当前及前N个姿态更新周期角增量的单子样旋转矢量姿态算 法,并在典型圆锥运动条件下推导了算法补偿项系数。此外,由于陀螺输出经过数字滤波处 理后其幅频特性的改变会影响圆锥误差的补偿效果,根据滤波器特性推导了单子样旋 转矢量姿态算法的修正算法,以便于在工程中推广应用。该算法在不降低姿态更新频率 的同时,可获得较高的解算精度,适于高动态环境应用,实验结果验证了上述算法的正确性 和有效性。
     

Skylab task and work performance (experiment M-151--time and motion study)

The primary objective of Experiment M151 was to study by means of time and motion analytic techniques the inflight adaptation of Skylab crewmen to a variety of task situations involving different types of activity. A parallel objective was to examine astronaut inflight performance for any behavioral stress effects associated with the working and living conditions of the Skylab environment. Training data provided the basis for comparison of preflight and inflight performance. Efficiency was evaluated through the adaptation function, namely, the relation of performance time over task trials. The results indicate that the initial changeover from preflight to inflight (or, from 1-G to zero-G) was accompanied by a substantial increase in performance time for most work and task activities. Equally important was the finding that crewmen adjusted rapidly to the weightless environment and became proficient in developing techniques with which to optimize task performance. By the end of the second inflight trial, most of the activities were performed almost as efficiently as on the last preflight trial. In addition, the analysis demonstrated the sensitivity of the adaptation function to differences in task and hardware configuration. The function was found to be more regular and less variable inflight than preflight. Translation and control of masses (large or small) were accomplished easily and efficiently through the rapid development of the arms and legs (and the entire body) as subtle guidance and restraint systems. Finally, the adaptation function provided no evidence of behavioral stress effects attributable to the Skylab environment.     

Egocentric frames of reference used for the retrieval of survey knowledge learned by map and navigation

Two experiments are reported that use a ``point-to-unseen-targets' task to study the role of egocentric reference frames in the retrieval of survey knowledge learned from either studying a map or navigating an environment. In Experiment 1, performance was generally consistent with the hypothesis that map knowledge is retrieved using a frame of reference centered on the eye, characterized by (a) a fixed orientation in a ``frontal representational plane' and (b) equal access to spatial relations both in front of, or above, and behind, or below, a right-left retrieval axis. The results of Experiment 2 were consistent with the hypothesis that environment knowledge is retrieved within a frame of reference centered on the body, characterized by (a) flexible orientation within a ``transverse representational plane' and (b) privileged access to spatial relations located in front of the right-left retrieval axis in representational space. Both types of knowledge function as if they preserve information about the Euclidean angles connecting elements in physical space.     

Extravehicular activity training and hardware design consideration

Preparing astronauts to perform the many complex extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks required to assemble and maintain Space Station will be accomplished through training simulations in a variety of facilities. The adequacy of this training is dependent on a thorough understanding of the task to be performed, the environment in which the task will be performed, high-fidelity training hardware and an awareness of the limitations of each particular training facility. Designing hardware that can be successfully operated, or assembled, by EVA astronauts in an efficient manner, requires an acute understanding of human factors and the capabilities and limitations of the space-suited astronaut. Additionally, the significant effect the microgravity environment has on the crew members' capabilities has to be carefully considered not only for each particular task, but also for all the overhead related to the task and the general overhead associated with EVA. This paper will describe various training methods and facilities that will be used to train EVA astronauts for Space Station assembly and maintenance. User-friendly EVA hardware design considerations and recent EVA flight experience will also be presented.