Learning Mental Rotation: Exemplar Learning or Process Learning

This experiment investigated the relationship between mental rotation and sport training. Undergraduate university students (n = 62) completed the Mental Rotation Test ( Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978 ), before and after a 10-month training in two different sports, which either involved extensive mental rotation ability (wrestling group) or did not (running group). Both groups showed comparable results in the pretest, but the wrestling group outperformed the running group in the posttest. As expected from previous studies, males outperformed women in the pretest and the posttest. Besides, self-reported data gathered after both sessions indicated an increase in adaptive strategies following training in wrestling, but not subsequent to training in running. These findings demonstrate the significant effect of training in particular sports on mental rotation performance, thus showing consistency with the notion of cognitive plasticity induced from motor training involving manipulation of spatial representations. They are discussed within an embodied cognition framework.

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The Solution Strategy as an Indicator of the Developmental Stage of Preschool Children’s Mental-Rotation Ability

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000017 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 31 (2) ◽

pp. 95-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Claudia Quaiser-Pohl ◽

Anna M. Rohe ◽

Tobias Amberger

Keyword(s):

Preschool Children ◽

Mental Rotation ◽

Latent Class ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Stage Model ◽

Solution Strategy ◽

Thinking Aloud ◽

Transition Analysis ◽

Solution Strategies ◽

Close Relationship

The solution strategies of preschool children solving mental-rotation tasks were analyzed in two studies. In the first study n = 111 preschool children had to demonstrate their solution strategy in the Picture Rotation Test (PRT) items by thinking aloud; seven different strategies were identified. In the second study these strategies were confirmed by latent class analysis (LCA) with the PRT data of n = 565 preschool children. In addition, a close relationship was found between the solution strategy and children’s age. Results point to a stage model for the development of mental-rotation ability as measured by the PRT, going from inappropriate strategies like guessing or comparing details, to semiappropriate approaches like choosing the stimulus with the smallest angle discrepancy, to a holistic or analytic strategy. A latent transition analysis (LTA) revealed that the ability to mentally rotate objects can be influenced by training in the preschool age.

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Gender Differences in the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) Are Not Due to Task Complexity

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001.29.3.130 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 130-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Corinna Titze ◽

Martin Heil ◽

Petra Jansen

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Mental Rotation ◽

Task Complexity ◽

Time Constraints ◽

Medium Effects ◽

Performance Factors ◽

Mental Rotations ◽

Sufficient Power ◽

Forced Choice Tasks ◽

Choice Tasks

Gender differences are one of the main topics in mental rotation research. This paper focuses on the influence of the performance factor task complexity by using two versions of the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). Some 300 participants completed the test without time constraints, either in the regular version or with a complexity reducing template creating successive two-alternative forced-choice tasks. Results showed that the complexity manipulation did not affect the gender differences at all. These results were supported by a sufficient power to detect medium effects. Although performance factors seem to play a role in solving mental rotation problems, we conclude that the variation of task complexity as realized in the present study did not.

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Individual Differences in Mental Rotation

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000184 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 60 (3) ◽

pp. 164-171 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Peter Khooshabeh ◽

Mary Hegarty ◽

Thomas F. Shipley

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Mental Rotation ◽

Response Times ◽

Task Demands ◽

Mental Rotation Task ◽

Imagery Ability ◽

Alternative Strategies

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that imagery ability and figural complexity interact to affect the choice of mental rotation strategies. Participants performed the Shepard and Metzler (1971) mental rotation task. On half of the trials, the 3-D figures were manipulated to create “fragmented” figures, with some cubes missing. Good imagers were less accurate and had longer response times on fragmented figures than on complete figures. Poor imagers performed similarly on fragmented and complete figures. These results suggest that good imagers use holistic mental rotation strategies by default, but switch to alternative strategies depending on task demands, whereas poor imagers are less flexible and use piecemeal strategies regardless of the task demands.

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