Mental rotation performance in primary school age children: Are there gender differences in chronometric tests?

In contrast to the well documented male advantage in psychometric mental rotation tests, gender differences in chronometric experimental designs are still under dispute. Therefore, a systematic investigation of gender differences in mental rotation performance in primary-school children is presented in this paper. A chronometric mental rotation task was used to test 449 second and fourth graders. The children were tested in three separate groups each with different stimulus material (animal drawings, letters, or cube figures). The results show that chronometric mental rotation tasks with cube figures – even rotated in picture plane only – were too difficult for children in both age groups. Further analyses with animal drawings and letters as stimuli revealed an overall gender difference in response time (RT) favoring males, an increasing RT with increasing angular disparity for all children, and faster RTs for fourth graders compared to second graders. This is the first study which has shown consistent gender differences in chronometric mental rotation with primary school aged children regarding reaction time and accuracy while considering appropriate stimuli.     

Dynamic orientation cues decrease the viewpoint cost of mental rotation

Mental rotation, as a covert simulation of motor rotation, could benefit from spatial updating of object representations. We are interested in what kind of visual cue could trigger spatial updating. Three experiments were conducted to examine the effect of dynamic and static orientation cues on mental rotation, using a sequential matching task with three-dimensional novel objects presented in different views. Experiment 1 showed that a rotating orientation cue with constant speed reduced viewpoint costs in mental rotation. Experiment 2 extended this effect with a varied-speed rotating orientation cue. However, no such benefit was observed with a static orientation cue in Experiment 3. These findings indicated that a visually continuous orientation cue is sufficient to elicit spatial updating in mental rotation. Furthermore, there may be differences in the underlying mechanisms of spatial updating on the basis of constant-speed rotating cues and varied-speed rotating cues.     

Correlation of motor skill,mental rotation,and working memory in 3- to 6-year-old children

A relationship between motor processes and mental rotation has been suggested by current research; however, the influence of working memory on this relationship has not yet been determined. Therefore, a correlation between motor tests, paper–pencil and chronometric mental rotation tests, and working memory tests were conducted in 3- to 6-year-old children. A stepwise multiple-regression showed that 55.5% of the variance was explained by the working memory tests: digit span forward and Corsi forward. This indicates that working memory and executive functions may play an important role in mental rotation and motor processes.     

汉族、基诺族及布朗族7～9岁儿童心理旋转能力的比较研究

该研究探讨了我国7～9岁汉族、基诺族、布朗族儿童的“心理旋转”能力,了解不同民族的文化背景、年龄及性别差异是否对“心理旋转”产生影响。结果表明：汉族儿童的结果与基诺族及布朗族儿童结果存在明显差异,7～9岁儿童的心理旋转能力随着年龄增长而发展。未见男女性别上存在“心理旋转”能力上的差异。     

幼儿二维心理旋转能力发展的研究

在以旋转的米老鼠图形作为测试项目,对每半岁为一个年龄段共１３３名３．５一６．５岁的幼儿进行心理旋转的实验研究中发现,幼儿在４岁时已经开始建立心理旋转能力．其发展特征呈连续性;男女幼儿间有一定的性别差异存在,但统计结果提示无显著性意义;男女幼儿在５－６岁间都发现有一个负增长阶段,其原因不明。     

Some relationships between factors and components

The asymptotic correlations between the estimates of factor and component loadings are obtained for the exploratory factor analysis model with the assumption of a multivariate normal distribution for manifest variables. The asymptotic correlations are derived for the cases of unstandardized and standardized manifest variables with orthogonal and oblique rotations. Based on the above results, the asymptotic standard errors for estimated correlations between factors and components are derived. Further, the asymptotic standard error of the mean squared canonical correlation for factors and components, which is an overall index for the closeness of factors and components, is derived. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation are presented to show the usefulness of the asymptotic results in the data with a finite sample size.The author is indebted to anonymous referees for their comments, corrections and suggestions which have led to the improvement of this article.     

Role of motor processes in extrinsically encoding mental transformations

Previous research has shown that imagined perspective rotations elicit spatial and low-level cortical motor areas of the brain when participants rely on knowledge of their physical body, or body percept (Wraga, Flynn, Boyle, & Evans, 2010). The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether recruitment of the body percept would activate low-level cortical motor areas of the brain within other classes of mental transformations. Participants performed imagined object and perspective rotations of three-dimensional Shephard-Metzler (1971) stimuli. For each task, participants used button presses serving as virtual pointers to locate a prescribed portion of the stimuli with respect to their "right" and "left." We found low-level cortical motor activation (M1) for both mental transformations; however, the degree to which such activation related to participants' performance differed, as well as the recruitment of additional nonmotoric strategies. The results are discussed in terms of recent hypotheses regarding the role of the body percept in extrinsically encoded mental transformations.     

Improving spatial abilities through mindfulness: effects on the mental rotation task

In this study, we demonstrate a previously unknown finding that mindful learning can improve an individual’s spatial cognition without regard to gender differences. Thirty-two volunteers participated in the experiment. Baselines for spatial ability were first measured for the reaction time on the mental rotation task. Next, the participants were randomly assigned to either a mindful or mindless learning condition. After learning, the mental rotation task showed that those in the mindful learning condition responded faster than those in the mindless learning condition. This study provides promising evidence for applying mindful learning to education.     

心理旋转研究的新进展

心理旋转是一种空间表征转换形式,也是认知心理学家关注的热点问题。文章结合实证研究,分析了心理旋转加工的大脑机能一侧化问题,阐释了心理旋转能力的个体差异性,探讨了基于心理旋转能力可塑性的提高空问智能的有效途径。并在此基础上．对未来心理旋转领域的研究加以展望。     

想象空间心理旋转的角色效应

第一人称角色心理旋转和第三人称角色心理旋转是人类视觉系统通常采用的两种不同的空间表征动力转换策略。该研究采用实验方法,对违背物理移动规律的两种角色水平面心理旋转进行对比性研究。实验结果表明,想象空间两种角色水平面心理旋转存在显著差异,第三人称角色心理旋转的优势可概括化于旋转轴物理方向与重力方向不一致的水平面心理旋转中。