Sex differences in mental rotation tasks: Not just in the mental rotation process!

Abstract

The paper-and-pencil Mental Rotation Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978) consistently produces large sex differences favoring men (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). In this task, participants select 2 of 4 answer choices that are rotations of a probe stimulus. Incorrect choices (i.e., foils) are either mirror reflections of the probe or structurally different. In contrast, in the mental rotation experimental task (Shepard & Metzler, 1971) participants judge whether 2 stimuli are the same but rotated or different by mirror reflection. The goal of the present research was to examine sources of sex differences in mental rotation, including the ability to capitalize on the availability of structure foils. In 2 experiments, both men and women had greater accuracy and faster reaction times (RTs) for structurally different compared with mirror foils in different versions of the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test (Experiment 1) and the Shepard and Metzler experimental task (Experiment 2). A significant male advantage in accuracy but not response time was found for both trial types. The male advantage was evident when all foils were structure foils so that mental rotation was not necessary (Experiment 3); however, when all foils were structure foils and participants were instructed to look for structure foils a significant sex difference was no longer evident (Experiment 4). Results suggest that the mental rotation process is not the only source of the sex difference in mental rotation tasks. Alternative strategy use is another source of sex differences in these tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sex differences in associations between spatial ability and corpus callosum morphology

“…Women, on the other hand, are thought to employ a series of higher‐order cognitive processes related to object identification, working memory, and possibly even language representation (also termed an “analytic” approach), which engages a wide network of parietal, temporal, and frontal brain regions and presumably also interhemispheric pathways. Interestingly studies geared toward directly assessing such sex differences in strategies seem to indicate that the more automated/global shape approach is associated with a better mental rotation performance than the analytic approach (Boone & Hegarty, ; Hegarty, ), which is in close agreement with the outcomes of the current study where men outperformed women. Moreover, the current findings support the aforementioned assumption of sex differences in specific cognitive strategies and brain functions: That is, the sex differences in associations between mental rotation performance and callosal thickness suggest that mental rotation performance relates positively to interhemispheric communication, but only in women.…”

“…The current results are in line with interpretations from previous studies suggesting some differences in the approaches used by men and women to solve mental rotation problems (Boone & Hegarty, 2017;Butler et al, 2006;Clements-Stephens et al, 2009;Hegarty, 2017;Hugdahl et al, 2006;Jordan et al, 2002;Thomsen et al, 2000). It has been suggested, for example, that men rely on a "gestalt" strategy for matching shapes (also termed an "automatic" or "global" approach), which particularly involves parietal regions that are directly associated with spatial processing.…”

“…directly assessing such sex differences in strategies seem to indicate that the more automated/global shape approach is associated with a better mental rotation performance than the analytic approach (Boone & Hegarty, 2017;Hegarty, 2017), which is in close agreement with the outcomes of the current study where men outperformed women. Moreover, the current findings support the aforementioned assumption of sex differences in specific cognitive strategies and brain functions: That is, the sex differences in associations between mental rotation performance and callosal thickness suggest that mental rotation performance relates positively to interhemispheric communication, but only in women.…”

Sex differences in spatial cognition: advancing the conversation

“…It is important to note that both males and females show the signature increase in reaction time with angular disparity on Shepard–Metzler type mental rotation tasks, suggesting that both groups are engaging in mental rotation (e.g., Refs ; Hooven, Chabris, Ellison, Kievit, & Kosslyn, unpublished data). Moreover, these studies show that the sex difference on the Shepard–Metzler task is not in the slope of reaction times as a function of angular disparity—thought to reflect mental rotation—but rather in the intercept, which is thought to reflect encoding of the shapes, preparation for rotation, decision making, and/or response rather than mental rotation per se . In fact, there is evidence to suggest that females have difficulty with forming 3D representations based on 2D images .…”

Attentional resource allocation among individuals with different fluid intelligence: The integrated control hypothesis and its evidence from pupillometry

“…Notably, the tasks used in Campbell et al's study (2018) and the present study were all visuospatial. As many studies show that male participants have an advantage in visuospatial tasks (Boone & Hegarty, 2017;Halpern, 2000), a reasonable explanation for the main effect of gender is that males require fewer attention resources while solving these tasks due to their inherent visuospatial advantage. In the view of these explanations, as females usually show better performances in verbal tasks (Halpern, 2000), we predict that women would allocate fewer resources than men in verbal tasks.…”