You Should Be the Specialist! Weak Mental Rotation Performance in Aviation Security Screeners - Reduced Performance Level in Aviation Security with No Gender Effect.

Jenny K Krüger,Boris Suchan

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00333

Abstract

Aviation security screeners analyze a large number of X-ray images per day and seem to be experts in mentally rotating diverse kinds of visual objects. A robust gender-effect that men outperform women in the Vandenberg & Kuse mental rotation task has been well documented over the last years. In addition it has been shown that training can positively influence the overall task-performance. Considering this, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether security screeners show better performance in the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) independently of gender. Forty-seven security screeners of both sexes from two German airports were examined with a computer based MRT. Their performance was compared to a large sample of control subjects. The well-known gender-effect favoring men on mental rotation was significant within the control group. However, the security screeners did not show any sex differences suggesting an effect of training and professional performance. Surprisingly this specialized group showed a lower level of overall MRT performance than the control participants. Possible aviation related influences such as secondary effects of work-shift or expertise which can cumulatively cause this result are discussed.

Highlights

Mental rotation of objects is a fundamental spatial ability that affects several aspects of life as a basic cognitive function, for example parking a car in a parking spot accurately
One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) including the factor gender indicated a significant effect of this factor only within the control group F(1,1216) = 185.67, p < 0.001, η2 = 13.2%, power = 1.000 (α = 0.05) but not for the security screeners F(1,45) = 0.461, p = 0.501, η2 = 1.0%, power = 0.102 (α = 0.05)
As mentioned by Peters (Peters et al, 2006) it is imaginable that only women with enhanced spatial abilities decide to work in aviation security screening or otherwise that only those stay working within security screening over years who have effectively developed enhanced mental rotation abilities

Summary

Introduction

Mental rotation of objects is a fundamental spatial ability that affects several aspects of life as a basic cognitive function, for example parking a car in a parking spot accurately. According to Linn and Petersen’s (1985) meta-analysis, mental rotation has to be distinguished from spatial perception and spatial visualization (Voyer et al, 1995). Various influences on this ability, such as hormones (Hausmann et al, 2000; Piccardi et al, 2013) or sexual orientation (Peters et al, 2007) have been shown, as well as a robust gender-advantage where men tend to perform better than women (Linn and Petersen, 1985; Jordan et al, 2002; Cooke-Simpson and Voyer, 2007; Peters et al, 2007). Given that mental rotation provides the basis for recognition and categorization of visually perceived items, it seems reasonable that this competency should be very pronounced and well trained in aviation security assistants

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