視覺影像的轉換在化學的學習上扮演重要的角色，但目前心理學界尚未清楚視覺影像轉換之相關運作的關係。心像旋轉是旋轉腦海中的圖像的能力，是視覺影像轉換能力的一種。本研究藉由探究心像旋轉作業中的心像旋轉階段的心智過程，以釐清心像旋轉此一視覺影像轉換過程的機制以及內在的心像表徵特性。本研究設計六個實驗以探究心像旋轉之內在表徵和心智歷程以及心像旋轉作業中的眼球運動掃瞄軌跡特性。研究結果發現心像旋轉歷程包含簡單架構的旋轉以及部件細節的重建兩個細微過程，且心像旋轉時的心像並不完整，並發現旋轉心像時眼球運動掃瞄軌跡與該影像編碼時的眼球運動掃瞄軌跡有關。在化學教育上要幫助學生視覺影像轉換，圖形中的空間關係要儘量明確且具有可以幫助重建部件空間關係的參考軸。這樣的圖形不但能幫助學生記憶與辨識，在轉換上也比較容易降低視覺空間記憶的負荷。為了有效的幫助學生化學學習，宜進一步利用化學領域使用的圖形或符號作為實驗刺激材料，探究化學常用圖形在視覺轉換時重要的線索，才能在教學上加強該線索的使用。

The transformation of visual images is very important during the learning of chemistry. It’s not yet clear about the relationship of the visual imagery transformation in psychology. To rotate or transfer the mental image in the mind, mental rotation is one of abilities about visual transformations. The study tried to investigate the mental process during the mental rotation phase in the mental rotation task, to clarify the mechanism of mental rotation phenomenon and the nature of mental representation during mental rotation. The study included six experiments to explore the nature of mental representation, the mechanisms of mental rotation and the scanpaths of eye movement in the mental rotation. There are three findings in the study. First, there are two subtle processes in the mental process of mental rotation – rotation of a reference line and reconstruction of the image. Second, the mental image is incomplete during mental rotation. Third, the eye movement scanpaths are relative during the encoding of one visual image and the rotating that visual mental images. IF a figure has an obvious reference line to restructure the components in the figure, it might help students transfer visual image. These kinds of figures not only help students remember and recognize them easier, but also reduce the visual spatial working memory in the transformation. The stimuli used in these experiments are specific to investigating the study only and the findings are not inferred overly to all visual transformations in the chemistry learning. It’s necessary to utilize the figures and symbols of the chemistry for stimuli of future experiments for searching the important index during any visual transformation in the chemistry learning.

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