The perception and manipulation of spatial information are essential for mathematical learning, and research highlights gender differences in spatial abilities. The present study contributes to the question of whether these differences are evident at earlier ages and how they interact with task complexity in mental rotation. We developed the…

Purpose: The purpose was (1) to test a new version of a mental rotation task (MRT), which assesses mental rotation abilities of men and women for sport-specific items, and (2) to investigate potential differences in MRT performance, which are based on athletic expertise. Methods: Eighty-eight basketball experts (42 females) and 123 novices (64…

Sculpting representations of human organs out of modeling clay is an acknowledged method of teaching anatomical structures. Because of its potential to provide detailed spatial information, stereoscopic imagery can be understood to function as a suitable template for such sculpting tasks. Currently, it is unknown whether the advantages of…

A major debate in the mental-rotation literature concerns the question of whether objects are represented holistically during rotation. Effects of object complexity on rotational speed are considered strong evidence against such holistic representations. In Experiment 1, such an effect of object complexity was markedly present. A closer look on…

Sixty years of research have not added up to a concordant evaluation of the influence of spatial and manual abilities on dental skill acquisition. We used Ackerman's theory of ability determinants of skill acquisition to explain the influence of spatial visualization and manual dexterity on the task performance of dental students in two…

In many situations people need to mentally adopt the (spatial) perspective of other persons, an ability that is referred to as "Level 2 perspective taking." Its underlying processes have been ascribed to mental self-rotation that can be dissociated from mental object-rotation. Recent findings suggest that perspective taking/self-rotation…

The last decades have seen a growing interest in the impact of action on perception and other concurrent cognitive processes. One particularly interesting example is that manual rotation actions facilitate mental rotations in the same direction. The present study extends this research in two fundamental ways. First, Experiment 1 demonstrates that…

Gender differences in a psychometrical and in a chronometrical mental rotation test and in a standardized math test were investigated with a sample size of 109 boys and girls aged 7 or 8 years. The results revealed gender differences in all accuracy-based measures, i.e., in the paper-pencil mental rotation test, in the math test, and in the error…

Discusses the factors that seem to be significant in the development of visualization skills, and examines gender differences in background and visualization ability for students enrolled in United States, German, and Polish technical universities. Findings indicate significant differences in spatial visualization ability between male and female…