Gender Differences In Mental Rotation Research Articles

Mental rotation-related neural interactions between gender and cognitive strategy

Abstract A long-standing history of research has focused on the differences between men and women in cognitive tasks, including that men would be more accurate and faster than women in mental rotation (MR). This advantage suggests that men would use an object-based cognitive strategy (OBS) to perform MR, whereas women would rely more on an effector-based cognitive strategy (EBS). To test this hypothesis, participants in the present study performed MR using OBS and EBS (plus a control condition) while their brain activity was recorded using fMRI. As sex hormones have often been reported to influence spatial ability, we also assessed the relationship between MR and testosterone levels and digit ratio. Behavioral results showed that (1) men performed faster MR than women in the OBS and control conditions, (2) men were more accurate than women in the OBS condition, and (3) women performed better in OBS than the other two conditions. No relationship was found between MR and testosterone or digit ratio. fMRI data showed that women in the OBS condition had greater activation than men in the inferior frontal and somatosensory cortices. Salivary testosterone levels had no effect on whole-brain activity. Combining behavioral and brain imaging data, these findings suggest that the additional somatosensory activation found in women during OBS somehow affects their MR, preventing the use of a purely spatial strategy and promoting the use of body-based sensorimotor processing, which would result in lower accuracy. These results support that gender differences in MR would be better explained by considering their relationship with the cognitive strategies used to perform MR.

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.

The Impacts of Anxiety and Motivation on Spatial Performance: Implications for Gender Differences in Mental Rotation and Navigation

Despite extensive research on gender differences in spatial cognition, the potential roles of affective and situational factors in accounting for these differences remain relatively understudied. Here, we discuss the impacts of spatial anxiety and motivation in mental rotation and navigation tasks, particularly their roles in explaining the gender performance gaps. We highlight the distinction between approach and avoidance motivation, as well as interactions between anxiety and motivation. Attention, working memory, and response strategy are discussed as mechanisms by which anxiety and motivation may affect performance on spatial tasks. Implications for a broader approach that also considers other psychological variables, such as confidence, are discussed.

The development of gender differences in spatial reasoning: A meta-analytic review.

Gender differences in spatial aptitude are well established by adulthood, particularly when measured by tasks that require the mental rotation of objects (Linn & Petersen, 1985; Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). Although the male advantage in mental rotation performance represents one of the most robust gender differences in adult cognition, the developmental trajectory of this male advantage remains a topic of considerable debate. To address this debate, we meta-analyzed 303 effect sizes pertaining to gender differences in mental rotation performance among 30,613 children and adolescents. We found significant developmental change in the magnitude of the gender difference: A small male advantage in mental rotation performance first emerged during childhood and then subsequently increased with age, reaching a moderate effect size during adolescence. Procedural factors, including task and stimulus characteristics, also accounted for variability in reported gender differences, even when controlling for the effect of age. These results demonstrate that both age and procedural characteristics moderate the magnitude of the gender difference in mental rotation throughout development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Mental rotation and mathematics: Gender-stereotyped beliefs and relationships in primary school children

This study aimed to examine gender differences in mental rotation and in gender-stereotyped beliefs and to assess relationships among mental rotation performance, mathematics ability, and gender-stereotyped beliefs in primary school children. Sixty-three 2nd graders (mean age 7.83) and sixty 4th graders (mean age 9.82) were administered a 2-D animal and a 3-D cube mental rotation test, a mathematics ability test, together with a self-report questionnaire devised to measure gender-stereotyped beliefs in both typical masculine, and feminine fields. Results indicated that boys scored higher than girls in mental rotation, but not in mathematics. They also highlighted that both sexes hold gender-stereotyped beliefs, and that mental rotation ability was significantly related with mathematics ability of fourth graders; however, there was no significant relationship with mathematics ability of second graders and mental rotation ability. The discussion focuses on sex differences in mental rotation, mathematics, gender-stereotyped beliefs and their relationships in childhood.

Early contributions to infants' mental rotation abilities.

Some cognitive abilities exhibit reliable gender differences, with females outperforming males in specific aspects of verbal ability, and males showing an advantage on certain spatial tasks. Among these cognitive gender differences, differences in mental rotation are the most robust, and appear to be present even in infants. A large body of animal research suggests that gonadal hormones, particularly testosterone, during early development could contribute to this gender difference in mental rotation. Also, substantial evidence supports an influence of socialization on mental rotation performance. The present study investigated the relationship of two types of factors, early postnatal testosterone exposure and parental attitudes about gender, to mental rotation performance in 61 healthy infants (29 males, 32 females). We measured salivary testosterone at two time points: 1-2.5 months of age and 5-6 months of age. Infants' mental rotation performance and parents' attitudes about gender were assessed at 5-6 months of age. As predicted, testosterone concentrations were significantly higher in boys than girls in early infancy (d = 0.54), and boys performed significantly better than girls on mental rotation (d = 0.64). A significant positive correlation between testosterone at age 1-2.5 months and mental rotation was found only in boys (r = 0.50, p = .01). A significant negative correlation between parents' gender-stereotypical attitudes and mental rotation performance was found only in girls (r = -.57, p = .002). These findings suggest that the early postnatal testosterone surge (also known as "mini-puberty") may have organizational influences on mental rotation performance in boys, and that parents may influence their daughters' mental rotation abilities beginning very early in life.

Gender differences in mental rotation in Oman and Germany

Gender differences in mental rotation often show that males are superior at this task. This study explored gender differences in two nations, which have disparities in their gender equality. While Germany represents a western liberal culture, Oman represents a conservative eastern culture. Students from Germany (119) and Oman (120) completed a mental rotation test, a cognitive processing speed test and a questionnaire of physical activity. The results show a significantly better mental rotation performance for the German students compared to Oman students and an overall gender difference across both cultures. Furthermore, German students outperformed Oman students in cognitive processing speed but there were no gender differences between the cultures. We conclude that mental rotation performance is related to nation, gender and cognitive processing speed. The results are discussed in the frame of how education systems developed in Germany and Oman.

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.

Test interactivity is promising in promoting gender equity in females' pursuit of STEM careers

Spatial ability provided important predictive validity to educational and work outcomes. Among the spatial factors underlining the spatial ability, mental rotation was the one in which large gender difference was constantly observed. As a measure of intermediate-scale spatial ability, the present study tested the effectiveness of an interactive test in reducing the gender difference in mental rotation with 442 primary school children of Grades 4 to 6. The results showed that the girls did perform closer to the boys using the interactive items as compared to the static items although overall the boys still outperformed the girls, the gender effect was increasing by age and grade making the largest gender difference occurred in Grade 6. By attending to the gender difference earlier and implementing interactive spatial tests and training, it can be expected to project smaller gender difference and more female participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) later in life span.

Gender Differences in Mental Rotation at Young Romanian Students at Psychology-a Pilot Study

The objective is focused on highlighting gender differences in mental rotation on spatial ability visual tasks in Romanian undergraduate psychology students. Method: Participants were 57 undergraduate students aged between 20 and 24 years old (m=21.56; S.D.=1.42). Instruments: 3D Spatial Orientation test, Vienna Tests System (Schuhfried, 2007). Results confirmed the hypotheses (p<0.05) regarding gender differences in mental rotation tasks as measured by Spatial Orientation test. Findings show that undergraduate male students have better statistically significant spatial orientaoin than undergraduate female students (p<0.05).

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.

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.

The Use of the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test in Children

Previous studies found that children are able to perform mental rotation (MR) tasks with a gender difference from the age of 4. More recently, gender differences in MR were also reported in infancy. However, different kinds of paradigms and stimuli were used. The present study investigates whether the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test (VMRT; Vandenberg &amp; Kuse, 1978 ) as well as another similar 2-dimensional stimuli test may be used with elementary and middle-school children, and whether gender differences are evidenced. Results show that boys outperform girls in the middle-school group only. Elementary school children encountered difficulties solving both the VMRT and 2D MR tests. The data confirmed recent results showing that gender differences in the VMRT performance were found at age 10. We further concluded that the VMRT and 2D MR tests may not be well-designed for elementary-school children. Further investigations should focus on gender differences in MR for children younger than 9 years old as well as on the underlying causes of such difference, using other experimental paradigms.

Gender differences in pre-adolescents’ mental-rotation performance: Do they depend on grade and stimulus type?

In psychometric mental-rotation tasks, adult male participants usually outperform females. A large body of evidence suggests that this effect is reliable, quite stable over lifespan and one of the largest cognitive gender differences. However, there are controversial findings regarding the age in which the male advantage emerges. The present study aimed at contributing to a systematic developmental research of mental rotation by examining two grades and three stimulus types in order to determine how these variables influence the gender difference. Second and fourth graders ( n = 432) were tested with a paper–pencil mental-rotation task in three stimulus conditions (animal pictures, letters, cube figures). Whereas fourth graders showed a small, but significant, stimulus-independent gender difference favoring males, there was no effect of gender on the mental-rotation performance of second graders. Fourth-grade boys performed better than second-grade boys in all stimulus conditions. Fourth-grade girls, in contrast, outperformed second-grade girls in the animal pictures condition and the letters condition, but not in the cube-figures condition. Results are discussed with regard to implications for causal mechanisms underlying the gender difference in mental rotation.

Time limits and gender differences on paper-and-pencil tests of mental rotation: a meta-analysis

The purpose of this study was to summarize research relevant to the influence of time limits on gender differences in paper-and-pencil tasks of mental rotation by means of a meta-analysis. Thirty-six effect sizes from published and unpublished studies examining the influence of time constraints were retrieved. Results showed that gender differences in mental rotation are significantly larger when the task is administered with time constraints compared to when such constraints are absent. In addition, the magnitude of gender differences was linearly related to the amount of time available for test completion. These findings were not related to the age or the year of birth of participants in the retrieved studies. The results are discussed with regard to their implications for explanations of gender differences in mental rotation and cognitive abilities in general.

Combining automatic item generation and experimental designs to investigate the contribution of cognitive components to the gender difference in mental rotation

Marked gender differences in three-dimensional mental rotation have been broadly reported in the literature in the last few decades. Various theoretical models and accounts were used to explain the observed differences. Within the framework of linking item design features of mental rotation tasks to cognitive component processes associated with them we combined automatic item generation, (quasi-)experimental research designs and think aloud protocols to test several hypotheses: in study 1 the main focus was on gender differences regarding (1) encoding- and mental transformation strategies and (2) the ability to maintain a stable mental representation while transforming it. The results indicated that females are more prone to either lose track or to lose their internal mental representations during transformation process. Furthermore, they also tended to use more error-prone mental transformation strategies. The second study focused on the evaluation of the hypotheses that the observed gender difference can be accounted for by individual differences in the ability to extract the depth information conveyed in the illustrations of the object. Based on previous studies we gradually manipulated the salience of depth cues in a psychometric experiment. The results partially confirmed our initial hypotheses: depending on the degree of salience of the depth information females either benefitted more, or to an equal extent than males from our experimental manipulations. The implications of the results of both studies are discussed.

Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Across Adulthood

Although gender differences in mental rotation in younger adults are prominent in paper-pencil tests as well as in chronometric tests with polygons as stimuli, less is known about this topic in the older age ranges. Therefore, performance was assessed with the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) paper-pencil test as well as with a computer-based two-stimulus same-different task with polygons in a sample of 150 adults divided into three age groups, 20–30, 40–50, and 60–70 years. Performance decreased with age, and men outperformed women in all age groups. The gender effect decreased with age in the MRT, possibly due to a floor effect. Gender differences remained constant across age, however, in the error rates of the computer-based task.

A review of gender differences in mental rotation

Mental rotation is the special cognitive process of imagining subjective or objective rotation,which is an important evaluation of spatial capacity of the brain.The response to stimulation of mental rotation tasks varies with changes of the stimulation and is gender dependent.Investigations have been conducted to find the physiological and psychological basis for the gender differences in mental rotation.Review of the recent development in the study on gender differences under different mental rotation stimulations is given in this article. Key words: Mental rotation; Gender difference; Psycho-social factor; Biological-neuronal factor

Women and mental rotation: Incremental theory and spatial strategy use enhance performance

Mental rotation is a spatial skill in which men outperform women. The present research tested a motivational explanation of this gender difference with the hypothesis that positive beliefs will in women favor use of spatial strategies, which in turn will lead to improved MRT performance. Spatial strategy use and two beliefs, namely incremental theory and self-perception of ability in stereotypically masculine (i.e., requiring spatial ability) tasks, were assessed in a sample of 120 women. Two groups of solvers – one spatial, one non-spatial – were selected on the basis of self-rated strategy use. Results demonstrated that use of spatial strategies mediates the effect of incremental theory of masculine tasks on MRT performance, whereas self-perception of ability directly influences MRT performance. Findings are discussed on the basis of a socio-cognitive explanation of gender differences in mental rotation.

Computer experience and gender differences in undergraduate mental rotation performance

Gender differences in mental rotation and computer experiences were investigated. Undergraduates, 27 men and 83 women, completed a brief self-report inventory of computer experiences and were pretested on the Vandenberg Test of Mental Rotation (VTMR). Students then participated in two 30-min sessions, spaced 1 week apart, in which they played a computer game. One half played a game that required mental rotation of geometric figures (‘Blockout’), the other half played a card game that did not involve mental rotation (‘Solitaire’). After the second computer game session, students retook the VTMR. A gender difference favoring men over women was obtained on the pretest VTMR. On the posttest VTMR, women in each group and men who played Blockout outperformed men who played Solitaire. Differences in selfreported computer use and efficacy were associated with differences on the VTMR. Success on Blockout was correlated with success on the VTMR. Computer experiences, including game playing, are a factor in VTMR performance differences among undergraduates.