Item type,occlusion, and gender differences in mental rotation

Two experiments were conducted to examine the role of item type in mental rotation. In each experiment, participants completed two computerized mental rotation tasks, one with blocks as stimuli and one with human figures as stimuli. The tasks were formatted either as a multiple-choice psychometric test (Experiment 1) or as a same–different type task (Experiment 2). Aside from the expected replication of a decreased effect of occlusion on women's accuracy when processing human figures compared to block figures, it was hypothesized that response times would increase when processing the complex but familiar human figures, compared to the simple but unfamiliar block figures. In Experiment 1, the results relevant to occlusion were replicated. However, the presence of a speed–accuracy trade-off suggested that participants processed human figures faster but less accurately than block figures. In Experiment 2, both men and women performed faster and more accurately when processing occluded human figures than when processing nonoccluded human figures. The effect of item type, its potential link to embodied cognition, and the role of strategy selection on gender differences in mental rotation are discussed.     

Durable and generalized effects of spatial experience on mental rotation: gender differences in growth patterns

This study addressed questions about improvement in mental rotation skills: (1) whether growth trajectories differ for men and women with higher or lower spatial experience, (2) whether videogame training has effects on performance and leads to transfer, (3) whether effects of repeated testing or training effects are durable and (4) whether transfer is durable. Undergraduates participated in repeated testing on the MRT or played the videogame Tetris. Analyses showed large improvements in mental rotation with both repeated testing and training; these gains were maintained several months later. MRT scores of men and women did not converge, but men showed faster initial growth and women showed more improvement later. Videogame training showed greater initial growth than repeated testing alone, but final performance did not differ. Effects of videogame training transferred to other spatial tasks exceeding the effects of repeated testing, and this transfer advantage was still evident after several months. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial anxiety and self-confidence mediate sex/gender differences in mental rotation

A recent meta-synthesis study with a sample of >12 million participants revealed that the male advantage in mental rotation (MR) is the largest cognitive sex/gender difference found in psychological literature. MR requires test takers to mentally rotate three-dimensional cubic figures under time restrictions. Previous studies have investigated how biological and social factors contribute to cognitive sex/gender differences in tasks of this type. Spatial anxiety and self-confidence in MR tasks have received less attention. The present study investigated the contribution of these psychological factors to sex/gender differences in MR performance. Participants (n = 269) completed two MR tasks that differed in task difficulty. Participants also indicated their self-confidence (for each item) and spatial anxiety. The results revealed that pronounced sex/gender differences in spatial anxiety and self-confidence mediate sex/gender in MR performance, especially when task demands are high. The current findings suggest that task-irrelevant factors that are not spatial cognitive in nature contribute largely to the well-known medium to large sex/gender differences in MR. Future studies should further explore mechanisms underlying cognitive sex/gender differences within a biopsychosocial approach.

Although men''s and women''s cognitive profiles largely overlap, sex/gender¹ differences in certain cognitive abilities are consistently reported, albeit with different effect sizes (e.g., Hyde 2005; Torres et al. 2006; Toivainen et al. 2018; Hirnstein et al. 2019). While women tend to outperform men in some verbal tasks, such as speech production (d = 0.33) (Hyde 2005), men tend to achieve higher performance in some spatial abilities (Voyer et al. 1995; Reilly and Neumann 2013). Spatial abilities are needed to perceive, localize, visualize, manipulate, and understand relationships between objects in space (Uttal et al. 2013; Newcombe and Shipley 2015).When compared with other tests of spatial perception (d = 0.44) and spatial visualization (d = 0.19), mental rotation (MR; d = 0.56–0.73) produces the most reliable sex/gender difference (Voyer et al. 1995). In fact, a metasynthesis based on >12 million participants revealed that the male advantage in MR is the largest cognitive sex/gender difference found in the psychological literature (Zell et al. 2015). MR refers to a process in which participants visualize and mentally rotate objects (Voyer et al. 1995). MR is an intrinsic dynamic spatial task in line with a classification by Uttal et al. (2013). In particular, the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) is a well-established psychometric paper–pencil test in which participants are required to mentally rotate three-dimensional (3D) cube figures designed by Shepard and Metzler (1971) and asked to identify which two out of four stimulus figures match a target figure under a time limit (Peters 1995).Meta-analyses on sex/gender differences in MR have shown medium to large effect sizes in favor of men (Linn and Petersen 1985; Voyer et al. 1995; Voyer 2011; Reilly and Neumann 2013), which have remained relatively stable across the years (Masters and Sanders 1993). Although the male advantage in MR has been shown to be larger in adults compared with children (Voyer et al. 1995), it did not significantly decrease as the year of birth increased. This suggests that the magnitude of sex/gender differences in MR is less affected by the social environment in which participants were raised (Voyer et al. 1995).Additionally, there are specific task characteristics that affect the size of the sex/gender difference in MR performance (Linn and Petersen 1985; Collins and Kimura 1997; Peters 2005; Voyer 2011). For example, it has been argued that the use of 3D objects might increase sex/gender differences. However, MR tasks involving 2D objects have also shown a male advantage when task difficulty is high (Collins and Kimura 1997). Furthermore, a study by Jansen-Osmann and Heil (2007) did not find sex/gender differences in the speed of mental rotation of 3D cube figures, disconfirming the importance of dimensionality in sex/gender differences. Apart from dimensionality, the size of the rotation angle, the number of rotation axes, and the complexity of the stimuli also contribute to the male advantage (Caissie et al. 2009). Other task factors that might enhance the sex/gender difference in MR are stimulus shape (Amorim et al. 2006; Jansen-Osmann and Heil 2007), stimulus color (Rahe et al. 2022), and response format (e.g., whether the number of correct answers per item is constant) (Hirnstein et al. 2009).Psychometric MR tasks are usually administered with time constraints. Peters (2005) argued that including a time constraint of any duration makes the task more ecologically valid, as perceptual speed is relevant to spatial abilities in a real-life environment. Time-constrained MR tasks produce larger sex/gender differences than MR tasks administered with no time limits (Peters 2005; Voyer 2011). As sex/gender differences are not eliminated when administered with no time constraints, this suggests that other task-related factors affect the sex/gender difference too (Voyer 2011). However, it is clear that time constraint is one critical factor in MR tasks that will usually amplify the size of the sex/gender difference. Notably, chronometric MR tests, which measure reaction time when identifying whether an object is a rotated or mirrored version of another without a time limit, do not tend to show sex/gender differences (Rahe et al. 2019).It should be noted that task-related factors can only partially explain sex/gender differences in mental rotation, which are still not fully understood (Halpern and LaMay 2000). A slightly different perspective on how to answer this research question has been offered by studies investigating biological, social, and psychological factors that may affect sex/gender differences in mental rotation performance. Although there is no doubt that biological factors such as sex hormones (Hausmann et al. 2000; Miller and Halpern 2014) and individual differences in structural and functional brain organization (e.g., Hausmann 2017; Hirnstein et al. 2019), social factors such as gender stereotypes (e.g., Halpern et al. 2007; Hausmann 2014), and the interaction between biological and social factors (e.g., Josephs et al. 2003; Wraga et al. 2007; Hausmann et al. 2009) contribute to sex/gender differences in spatial abilities, psychological factors are frequently neglected. This is surprising, as psychological factors have been shown to be particularly good candidates for elucidating interindividual and sex/gender differences in spatial abilities in general and MR in particular.The current study aimed to replicate the well-known sex/gender difference in MR performance and to investigate to what extent individual differences in psychological factors spatial anxiety and self-confidence contribute to and mediate the effect of sex/gender on MR performance when task demands are high and low. To achieve this, the present study included the more demanding Revised Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotations Tests (version MRT-A) (Peters 1995), which involve 2D drawings of 3D cube figures (Shepard and Metzler 1971), and the less demanding Mirror Pictures task—a 2D mental rotation test and subtest of the WILDE-Intelligenz-Test (Jäger and Althoff 1983). Self-confidence was measured on item level of each test. Trait spatial anxiety was measured with a questionnaire after cognitive testing.Self-confidence (i.e., the certainty that the participant''s responses are correct) is known to be generally higher in men than in women, especially in evaluation settings (Lenney 1977). Men''s higher self-confidence in their visuospatial performance even occurred when sex/gender differences in spatial performance were not observed (Ariel et al. 2018). However, self-confidence was positively correlated with MR performance (Cooke-Simpson and Voyer 2007). Given that men showed higher self-confidence in MR tasks compared with women, this might partly explain why men on average outperformed women in this study. The sex/gender difference in MR self-confidence was replicated by Estes and Felker (2012), who also found that self-confidence significantly mediated the sex/gender difference in MR performance; that is, more self-confident men revealed higher MR scores than women (Estes and Felker 2012). Furthermore, the positive relationship between self-confidence and MR performance was stronger in men than in women. These studies usually neglected psychological traits that might affect both individuals’ self-confidence and MR performance.Spatial anxiety is a domain-specific anxiety defined by negative thoughts and feelings when performing spatial tasks (Lawton 1994; Ramirez et al. 2012). A construct similar but not identical to spatial anxiety is self-efficacy, which has been defined as the belief in one''s own ability to perform a task (Bandura 1994). Spatial self-efficacy was positively correlated with MR performance in both men and women (Towle et al. 2005). Sex/gender differences in spatial anxiety emerged in children aged 6–12 yr (Lauer et al. 2018) and continued in adulthood (Lawton 1994). Women and girls showed significantly higher spatial anxiety than men and boys (Lawton 1994; Lauer et al. 2018; Alvarez-Vargas et al. 2020). Different aspects of spatial anxiety include navigation anxiety and spatial mental manipulation anxiety (Lyons et al. 2018). Navigation anxiety is defined by negative thoughts when attempting tasks involving directions and wayfinding. Mental manipulation anxiety is an anxiety surrounding spatial visualization, mental rotation, and imagined movement of abstract 3D objects, and hence reflects the demands of MR tasks. Women showed significantly higher navigation and mental manipulation anxiety than men (Lyons et al. 2018). Some evidence of a negative correlation between spatial anxiety and MR performance has been previously shown, with a recent study finding that spatial anxiety and not trait anxiety partially mediated the effect of sex/gender on MR performance; that is, women, higher in spatial anxiety than men, obtained lower performances (Alvarez-Vargas et al. 2020). When looking at within-scale factors identified with exploratory factor analysis, MR and navigation anxiety significantly mediated the effect of sex/gender on MR performance. However, the effect of sex/gender remained significant despite the effects of MR/navigation anxiety. Additionally, a moderate negative correlation between spatial anxiety and MR performance was found in children aged 6–12 yr, suggesting that the detrimental effect of spatial anxiety on MR performance might develop relatively early on (Lauer et al. 2018). Overall, these findings suggest that spatial anxiety is a key factor mediating sex/gender differences in MR. However, the precise mechanism through which spatial anxiety affects MR performance remains unclear.We hypothesized that men outperform women, especially in the more demanding MRT (hypothesis 1). We also predicted that, on average, women show higher spatial anxiety and lower self-confidence compared with men (hypothesis 2). Critically, it was hypothesized that the sex/gender difference in MR performance are mediated by the sex/gender differences in spatial anxiety and self-confidence, especially when task demands are high (hypothesis 3). Finally, in a series of exploratory analyses, we examined the sex/gender difference in self-confidence at the item level as well as in MR performance at each level of self-confidence (and spatial anxiety).     

Bodies and occlusion: Item types,cognitive processes,and gender differences in mental rotation

The aim of the current study was to reexamine previous findings in which the magnitude of the male advantage in mental rotation abilities increased when participants mentally rotated occluded versus nonoccluded items and decreased when participants mentally rotated human figures versus blocks. Mainly, the study aimed to address methodological issues noted on previous human figure mental rotations tests as the items composed of blocks and human body were probably not equivalent in terms of their cognitive requirements. Our results did not support previous research on embodied cognition as mental rotation performance decreased among both men and women when mentally rotating human figures compared to block items. However, for women, the effect of occlusion was decreased when mentally rotating human figures. Results are discussed in terms of task difficulty and gender differences in confidence and guessing behaviour.     

Object-based and egocentric mental rotation performance in older adults: The importance of gender differences and motor ability

In this study, mental rotation performance was assessed in both an object-based task, human figures and letters as stimuli, and in an egocentric-based task, a human figure as a stimulus, in 60 older persons between 60 and 71 years old (30 women, 30 men). Additionally all participants completed three motor tests measuring balance and mobility. The results show that the reaction time was slower for letters than for both human figure tasks and the mental rotation speed was faster over all for egocentric mental rotation tasks. Gender differences were found in the accuracy measurement, favoring males, and were independent of stimulus type, kind of transformation, and angular disparity. Furthermore, a regression analysis showed that the accuracy rate for object-based transformations with body stimuli could be predicted by gender and balance ability. This study showed that the mental rotation performance in older adults depends on stimulus type, kind of transformation, and gender and that performance partially relates to motor ability.     

Ethnic and gender subgroup differences in assessment center ratings: a meta-analysis

Assessment centers are widely believed to have relatively small standardized subgroup differences (d). However, no meta-analytic review to date has examined ds for assessment centers. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of available data and found an overall Black-White d of 0.52, an overall Hispanic-White d of 0.28, and an overall male-female d of -0.19. Consistent with our expectations, results suggest that Black-White ds in assessment center data may be larger than was previously thought. Hispanic-White comparisons were smaller than were Black-White comparisons. Females, on average, scored higher than did males in assessment centers. As such, assessment centers may be associated with more adverse impact against Blacks than is portrayed in the literature, but the predictor may have less adverse impact and be more "diversity friendly" for Hispanics and females.     

Understanding spatial transformations: similarities and differences between mental rotation and mental folding

Mental rotation and mental folding, two widely used measures of spatial ability, both require the dynamic spatial transformation of objects with respect to their internal spatial structure. Traditionally, however, these two skills have been considered quite distinct, based primarily on factor analyses of psychometric data. This paper reviews the similarities and differences between mental rotation and mental folding from a variety of perspectives, including their definitions, component cognitive processes, neurological bases, developmental trajectories, malleability, predictive validity, and psychometric properties. We conclude that mental rotation and mental folding are similar in many respects. However, the tasks differ in whether they require rigid or non-rigid transformations of objects. In addition, mental rotation shows robust sex-related differences whereas mental folding does not. We also identify specific questions for which research is lacking.     

Hemisphere differences for components of mental rotation

The hemispheric functional lateralization of components of mental rotation performance was investigated. Twenty right-handed males were presented with rotated alphanumerics and unfamiliar characters in the left or right visual field. Subjects decided if the laterally presented stimulus was identical to or a mirror image of a center standard stimulus. Reaction time and errors were measured. Previous mental rotation findings were replicated and the visual field variable produced significant effects for both dependent measures. An overall right visual field advantage was observed in the latency data, suggesting a left hemisphere superiority for at least one component process of the task. A significant interaction in the error data showed that alphanumerics produced less errors in the right visual field than in the left visual field, consistent with a left hemisphere superiority for processing verbal symbolic material. No such hemispheric difference in accuracy was found for unfamiliar characters.     

Visual field differences for clockwise and counterclockwise mental rotation

Geometric line drawings were presented to normal subjects in the left visual field (LVF) or right visual field (RVF) at various degrees of rotation from a centrally presented vertical standard. The task of the subject was to indicate with a reaction time (RT) response whether the laterally presented stimulus could be rotated into the vertical standard or if it was a rotated mirror image of the standard. In Study 1, an overall right hemisphere superiority was found for RT and accuracy on match trials. Most interestingly, interactions between Visual Field and Rotation Angle for the match accuracy data and between Visual Field and Direction of Rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise) for the match RT slopes were found. These interactions suggested that clockwise rotations were more readily performed in the LVF and counterclockwise rotations in the RVF, consistent with other literature for mental rotation. The purpose of Study 2 was to replicate this finding of visual field differences for rotation direction using a design in which direction and degree of rotation were varied orthogonally. No main effect of Visual Field was found. However, significant interactions between Visual Field and Rotation Angle were found for both RT and accuracy, confirming the presence of visual field differences for rotation direction in a new sample of subjects. These differences were discussed in terms of the possibly greater relevance of medially directed stimuli and a possible hemispheric bias for rotation direction, and in terms of interhemispheric transmission factors.     

Explaining sex differences in mental rotation: role of spatial activity experience

Males consistently outperform females on mental rotation tasks, such as the Vandenberg and Kuse (1978) Perceptual and Motor Skills, 47(2), 599–604, mental rotation test (MRT; e.g. Voyer et al. 1995) in Psychological Bulletin, 117, 250–265. The present study investigates whether these sex differences in MRT scores can be explained in part by early spatial activity experience, particularly those spatial activities that have been sex-typed as masculine/male-oriented. Utilizing an online survey, 571 ethnically diverse adult university students completed a brief demographic survey, an 81-item spatial activity survey, and the MRT. Results suggest that the significant relation between sex of the participant and MRT score is partially mediated by the number of masculine spatial activities participants had engaged in as youth. Closing the gap between males and females in spatial ability, a skill linked to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics success, may be accomplished in part by encouraging female youth to engage in more particular kinds of spatial activities.     

Suitable stimuli to obtain (no) gender differences in the speed of cognitive processes involved in mental rotation

Gender differences in speed of perceptual comparison, of picture-plane mental rotation, and in switching costs between trials that do and do not require mental rotation, were investigated as a function of stimulus material with a total sample size of N=360. Alphanumeric characters, PMA symbols, animal drawings, polygons and 3D cube figures were used with an otherwise completely equivalent experimental design in which age and speed-based IQ were comparable across male and female groups. Small gender-related differences in speed of perceptual comparison were found with the magnitude as well as the direction depending upon the stimulus material. Polygons were the only material that produced substantial and reliable gender differences in mental rotation speed, and additionally revealed gender differences in switching costs. Thus, whereas gender differences in paper-pencil mental rotation tests constitute an empirical reality, the generalization that men outperform women in the speed of mental rotation was not supported in the present experiment.     

Sex differences in parietal lobe morphology: relationship to mental rotation performance

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the human brain have reported evidence for sexual dimorphism. In addition to sex differences in overall cerebral volume, differences in the proportion of gray matter (GM) to white matter (WM) volume have been observed, particularly in the parietal lobe. To our knowledge there have been no studies examining the relationship between the sex differences in parietal lobe structure and function. The parietal lobe is thought to be involved in spatial ability, and particularly involved in mental rotation. The purpose of this study is to examine whether sex differences in parietal lobe structure are present, and if present to relate these differences to performance on the mental rotations test (MRT). We found that women had proportionately greater gray matter volume in the parietal lobe compared to men, and this morphologic difference was disadvantageous for women in terms of performance on the MRT. In contrast, we found that men compared to women had proportionately greater parietal lobe surface area, and this morphologic difference was associated with a performance advantage for men on mental rotation. These findings support the possibility that the sexual dimorphism in the structure of the parietal lobe is a neurobiological substrate for the sex difference in performance on the mental rotations test.     

A meta-analysis of mental rotation in the first years of life

Mental rotation, the cognitive process of moving an object in mind to predict how it looks in a new orientation, is coupled to intelligence, learning, and educational achievement. On average, adolescent and adult males solve mental rotation tasks slightly better (i.e., faster and/or more accurate) than females. When such behavioral differences emerge during development, however, remains poorly understood. Here we analyzed effect sizes derived from 62 experiments conducted in 1705 infants aged 3–16 months. We found that male infants recognized rotated objects slightly more reliably than female infants. This difference survives correction for small degrees of publication bias. These findings indicate that gender differences in mental rotation are small and not robustly detectable in the first months of postnatal life.

Research Highlights

• We analyzed effect sizes of 62 mental rotation experiments including 1705 infants.
• Looking time reveals that 3–16-months-old infants are able to perform mental rotation.
• Mental rotation is slightly more reliable in male infants compared to female infants.
• Gender difference in mental rotation is robust to small degrees of publication bias.

     

Covariation of sex differences in mental rotation with body size

Sex difference in mental rotation ability was reconsidered. The Vandenberg-Kuse figures were administered to 120 male and 76 female students from the Medical School of BlackSea Technical University in Trabzon, Turkey to assess the mental rotation ability. Students' height and weight were measured. As expected, men outperformed women on this test and had greater height and weight. Number correct on mental rotation test significantly correlated with height and weight for the total sample and for men, but only with weight for women. Using weight as covariate, the sex difference was no longer significant. The mean mental rotation score was significantly higher for heavy women than for light men. There was a positive correlation between weight and mental rotation test scores for heavy women, but height and weight were negatively correlated with mental rotation test scores for light men. These results suggest that there is no sex difference in mental rotation ability as measured.     

Erratum: Durable and generalized effects of spatial experience on mental rotation: Gender differences in growth patterns

The above article (DOI: 10.1002/acp.1420 ) was published online on 26 November 2007 and in print in Volume 22: 996‐1013, 2008. A printing error was subsequently identified in the article. Page 996: Missing author information. Should read Dr. Nora S. Newcombe, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA, National Science Foundation Grants REC‐0337360 and SBE0541957.