Assessing Spatial Relations under Altered Frames of Reference: A Virtual Reality Study Using the Mental Cutting Test

Abstract

Human performance in technical and operational environments depends greatly on spatial ability, the skill to imagine, interpret, and mentally manipulate relationships between objects in space. This ability supports essential tasks in design, engineering, and construction, where professionals must visualize complex forms and predict how parts fit together. In altered environments such as microgravity, the natural alignment between the body’s sense of upright (the idiotropic axis) and the visual frame of reference can be disrupted, which may weaken spatial reasoning when people must mentally cut or rotate objects without stable cues.This study tested how misalignment between visual and bodily reference frames affects spatial relations using the Mental Cutting Test (MCT) in immersive virtual reality (VR). A total of 233 participants completed the MCT under three conditions: (1) Control (CC), with aligned axes; (2) Static Misalignment (EC1), with a fixed tilt; and (3) Dynamic Misalignment (EC2), with continuously shifting orientation. These VR scenarios simulated settings with reduced gravitational cues to probe spatial reasoning in microgravity-like contexts.Results showed a clear drop in accuracy under dynamic misalignment (EC2) compared with CC and EC1, while EC1 did not differ from CC. Response times were comparable across conditions, indicating that the performance loss in EC2 reflected accuracy rather than speed. Demographic analyses showed moderation by gender and gaming experience: participants with regular gaming experience, and male participants, performed better under EC2; age showed no significant effects. From a human-factors perspective, these findings point to the need for training that prepares users to maintain spatial precision when visual and bodily frames are misaligned. VR provides a practical platform for assessing these risks and for designing targeted interventions for space, underwater, and other disorienting operational settings

Keywords: Human factors, Spatial ability, Virtual reality, Microgravity simulation, Spatial visualization

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006897