Abstract
This study investigated whether elite athletes and nonathletes use embodied processes similarly in mental rotation tasks. To this aim, wrestlers, athletes practicing other combat sports, and nonathletes solved a mental rotation task of abstract objects on which body parts were added. This type of stimulus is thought to tap motor processes that facilitate mental rotation when the body configurations depicted are anatomically possible but impede performance when configurations are anatomically impossible. Our results revealed that only combat sports athletes and nonathletes appear to be affected by anatomically impossible depictions. This finding suggests that wrestlers managed to overcome the counterproductive effects of embodiment in the present study. Overall, the findings suggest that specific sport expertise can help develop the cognitive flexibility necessary to inhibit counterproductive processes and shift to more adaptive strategies.
