From What Age Is Mental Rotation Training Effective? Differences in Preschool Age but Not in Sex.

Laura M Fernández-Méndez,M Rosa Elosúa,María José Contreras

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00753

Laura M Fernández-Méndez, M Rosa Elosúa + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00753

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Abstract

Currently, there is evidence that spatial skills training leads to an improvement of such skills, although studies with children in the Preschool stage are very scarce. This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of mental rotation (MR) training and sex differences in preschool children. Two experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 included 59 children of 1st course (aged between 3 and 4 years) and Experiment 2, 61 children of 2nd course (aged between 4 and 5 years) of Preschool Education, distributed into control and training groups. The results showed a significant improvement in the MR ability of the training group (measured through a different test than the one used for training) only in the older children, and a tendency toward significance in the younger participants. Moreover, no sex differences in MR or group differences across age groups were found. These results regarding MR training support the malleability of spatial skills approach, particularly in 4–5 year-old preschoolers. This malleability should be enhanced in our educational system, as well as the implementation of educational and social policies that tend toward equality between sexes in the development of spatial skills. This can promote an equitable access to academic careers requiring high spatial skills such as engineering, science, technology or mathematics, in which nowadays women are underrepresented.

Highlights

Mental rotation (MR), one of the most studied spatial skills within spatial cognition, has been defined as a dynamic process which requires mentally rotating a stimulus in order to align it with another reference stimulus, judging whether both stimuli are the same (Shepard and Metzler, 1971)
The main objective of this experiment was to assess whether the effect produced by a MR training can result in a higher performance of this spatial ability, measured through a different task to assess the participants’ level in such MR process in first course of Preschool Education
It is noteworthy that, both groups improved with respect to their pretest, the increase in the training group was higher compared to the control group

Summary

Introduction

Mental rotation (MR), one of the most studied spatial skills within spatial cognition, has been defined as a dynamic process which requires mentally rotating a stimulus in order to align it with another reference stimulus, judging whether both stimuli are the same (Shepard and Metzler, 1971). A considerable increase in the research of this ability has occurred since the early 70’s (Shepard and Metzler, 1971; Cooper and Shepard, 1973); studies focused on children younger than 6 years of age are very scarce, leading to the emergence of a field of research centered on when and how this ability develops. 3 year old children, some authors, such as Krüger et al (2014), have found mental transformation processes analogous to those found in older children or adults in a task that required the use of MR Other authors such as Frick et al (2013b) observed perseverative patterns in their responses without signs of MR, where less than half of the 4-year-old children exceeded chance performance level. These findings show how MR skills change at such an early age, resulting in inconsistent results and individual differences being reported

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