Kinesthetic aspects of mental representations in the identification of left and right hands

Kinesthetic aspects of mental representations of one’s own hands were investigated. Line drawings showed a human hand in one of five versions, in which finger position and wrist rotation varied; each version occurred as a left and as a right hand, and could appear in any one of eight directions in the picture plane. The subject was required to make quick judgments of whether a left or a right hand was represented, under three conditions of head tilt (left, upright, right). Reaction time varied systematically, reflecting the time required to move one’s own hand into congruence with the stimulus. Head tilt influenced the subjective reference frame of mental rotation when the degree of head tilt was 60 deg.