Abstract: This study examined the cognitive plasticity and stability in two typical processing subsystems in visuospatial relations encoding and judgment. Two experiments were conducted to test the levels of cognitive processing in image rotation among 20 pilots, 10 elderly adults, and among corresponding control groups. The results indicated that in the two main subsystems that were involved in visuospatial relation encoding and judgment, there were both a strong practice effect and an age effect. The corresponding function was found to improve with systematic training and decrease with aging in the metric/ coordinate subsystem of visuospatial relations encoding. In contrast, little effect of practice and age on the function of subsystems concerning categorical subsystem in visuospatial relations encoding was found in this study. The study suggested that due to some hereditary and intrinsic attributes of brain structure, the metric/coordinate subsystem could show a higher cognitive plasticity and susceptibility, while the categorical subsystems, however, showed cognitive stability and a lower plasticity. The implication of this study was discussed a high level visual processing theory, developed by Kosslyn.

Key words: spatial relations encoding, processing subsystem, practice effect, age effect, cognitive plasticity