The role of practice and strategy in mental rotation training: transfer and maintenance effects

Abstract

Research in the domain of spatial abilities is now focusing on whether spatial abilities can be trained, and whether this can produce gains and maintenance effects in other, untrained skills. The aim of the present study was to assess the benefit and maintenance effects of two types of mental rotation training, one based on mental rotation practice alone, the other combining mental rotation practice with the use of a spatial (rotation) strategy. Seventy-two females took part in the study: 24 practiced with a rotation task that involved comparing pairs of 3D objects [the mental rotation (MR) group], 24 were taught to use the rotation strategy while practicing with the rotation task [the strategy + mental rotation (S + MR) group], and 24 were involved in parallel non-spatial activities (the active control group). Transfer effects were sought on both untrained spatial tasks (testing object rotation and perspective taking) and fluid ability tasks; self-reported strategy use was also examined. Our results showed short-term benefits and maintenance effects in the MR and the S + MR groups in terms of their accuracy in both the MR tasks considered (a 3D same/different task, and the Mental Rotations Test). The S + MR group was more accurate at follow-up than at post-test in both MR tasks, and reported using the rotation strategy in association with the tasks; this group was also more accurate at follow-up than at pre-test in the perspective-taking and fluid intelligence tasks. These findings are discussed from the spatial cognition standpoint and with reference to the (rotation) training literature.

From What Age Is Mental Rotation Training Effective? Differences in Preschool Age but Not in Sex

“…Another point worth highlighting from this present study is the adaptation we performed of the original task by Quaiser-Pohl (2003) , with the objective of evaluating the effect of MR training on 3 year-old children. In addition, the evaluation of the training program with a different task than that used during training supports the idea of knowledge transfer of spatial skills ( Terlecki et al, 2008 ; Uttal et al, 2013a ; Meneghetti et al, 2016a , b ). In this regard, the earlier work of Marmor (1977) , Ehrlich et al (2006) , and Krüger et al (2014) did not assess transfer, as their training task was the same as their assessment test.…”

Strengthening spatial reasoning: elucidating the attentional and neural mechanisms associated with mental rotation skill development

“…Although many studies have shown that practicing mental rotation can lead to an improvement in spatial reasoning skills (Cohen & Hegarty, 2007;Hoyek, Collet, Di Rienzo, De Almeida, & Guillot, 2014;Meneghetti, Borella, & Pazzaglia, 2016;Meneghetti, Cardillo, Mammarella, Caviola, & Borella, 2017;Rodán, Contreras, Elosúa, & Gimeno, 2016), these studies do not always use optimal methods for reliably detecting training effects (see Uttal et al, 2013, for review). Optimal methods include active control groups in which the control training task has levels of difficulty similar to those of the experimental task (Simons et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, it is important to use novel stimuli throughout training and at test to rule out improvements in performance due to familiarity with repeated stimuli (Tarr & Pinker, 1989). The majority of previous mental rotation training studies have used threedimensional (3D) cubes similar to those used in the current study (Cohen & Hegarty, 2007;Meneghetti et al, 2017). Some studies have used 3D stimuli that more directly apply to everyday life, such as human anatomy (Hoyek et al, 2014) or a combination of 3D cubes and 2D drawings (Meneghetti et al, 2016;Rodán et al, 2016).…”

Strategy selection versus flexibility: Using eye-trackers to investigate strategy use during mental rotation.

“…Strategy selection pertaining to spatial reasoning has been extensively studied in the mental rotation literature (Hegarty, 2010;Khooshabeh, Hegarty, & Shipley, 2013;Kozhevnikov, Hegarty, & Mayer, 2002;Meneghetti, Cardillo, Mammarella, Caviola, & Borella, 2016;Shepard & Metzler, 1971;Ter Horst, Jongsma, Janssen, van Lier, & Steenbergen, 2012). For several decades' researchers investigating strategy selection during spatial thinking tasks have attempted to operationalize the strategies that participants' use, but an inconsistent vocabulary has been employed.…”