Improved mental rotation by near-sighted subjects

Several studies have shown significant correlations among factors such as sex, age, and hormone levels with performance on mental rotation tasks. To perform spatial rotation also seems to be related to cognitive abilities such as musical skills. The present experiment investigated a possible relationship for enhanced spatial abilities, as observed in near-sighted subjects, with mental rotation performance. 39 near-sighted and 21 normal-sighted subjects were tested on a mental rotation task using two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects. Near-sighted subjects displayed fewer errors in possible rotations than normal-sighted subjects. There was no difference in errors between groups in identification of mirror images ("impossible rotations"). Results were interpreted in terms of a relation between enhanced reliance on nonvisual information by near-sighted subjects and improved spatial representation.