Factors Influencing Mental-Rotation with Action-based Gender-Stereotyped Objects—The Role of Fine Motor Skills

Abstract

The present study investigated the influence of manual dexterity and gender on mental-rotation performance with action-based stereotyped items. Twenty five girls and 25 boys of fourth grade solved a chronometric mental-rotation test with actionbased gender stereotyped items. Furthermore, manual dexterity was measured. Results showed that instead of gender, manual dexterity and the stereotyped nature of the action-based items influenced mental-rotation performance. A correlation analysis suggests that this result holds true for boys but not for girls. Overall, findings confirm the relation between perception and action, which both develop early in life. Results are discussed with regard to the kind of mental transformation that is required (object based vs. egocentric) and the effect of gestures on mental-rotation performance.

Association Between Preschoolers’ Specific Fine (But Not Gross) Motor Skills and Later Academic Competencies: Educational Implications

“…Punctual refers to the recording of the motor execution of each child in each activity of interest, in a single observation session. Multidimensional refers to the fact that more than one dimension of the participant's response is taken into account; more precisely, different aspects of the child's motor execution were observed with reference to specific gross and fine motor skills, in accordance with the theoretical proposal of several authors (Ulrich, 2000;Grissmer et al, 2010;Bjorklund and Hernández, 2012;Gentier et al, 2013;Lopes et al, 2013;D'Hondt et al, 2014;Jansen et al, 2015;Magistro et al, 2015;Raisbeck and Diekfuss, 2015;Rudd et al, 2015;van der Fels et al, 2015;Oberer et al, 2017;Chang and Gu, 2018;Haywood and Getchell, 2019). These dimensions of the participant's response led to the ad hoc observation instrument that was designed.…”

“…It relies more on synchronized hand-eye movements than Fine Motor Coordination. For its assessment, writing and copying tasks are carried out on shapes, letters or other stimuli (Grissmer et al, 2010;Cameron et al, 2012;Roebers et al, 2014;Jansen et al, 2015;van der Fels et al, 2015;Oberer et al, 2017;Chang and Gu, 2018). The development of gross and fine motor skills does not take place independently.…”

Motor skills in kindergarten: Internal structure, cognitive correlates and relationships to background variables

“…D'Hondt et al, 2014;Lopes, Santos, Pereira & Lopes, 2013), fine motor tasks refer to the control of arm movement and manual dexterity (e.g. Jansen, Quaiser-Pohl, Neuburger & Ruthsatz, 2015;Roebers et al, 2014). There is empirical evidence that both gross and fine motor skills, are related to school achievement.…”

Gender Differences in Mental Rotational Training Based on Computer Adaptive Tests

“…Secondly, we believe that reaction time is a more indicative measure of mental rotation ability. Previous research has also highlighted that increased reaction time reflects the rotation process itself and, consequently, reflects the speed of mental rotation [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]. Reaction time represents the speed at which individuals process and mentally manipulate spatial information during mental rotation tasks.…”