Evidence map›Paper›PMID 18036595›Full record

ArticleHormones and behavior2008

Blocks and bodies: sex differences in a novel version of the Mental Rotations Test.

Gerianne M Alexander, Milagros Evardone

Abstract readComparative StudyEvaluation Study
In one paragraph

Article in Hormones and behavior, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Stimulus-specific influence of gender on mental-rotation-related brain activity.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
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  14. No sex differences in the TAMI.Cognitive processing · 2015
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Gerianne M AlexanderDepartment of Psychology, Texas A&M University, TAMU-4235, College Station, Texas 77845, USA. gma@psyc.tamu.edu
Milagros Evardone

Funding

BIOSOCIAL ACTIVATION OF SEX-LINKED COGNITIVE BEHAVIORR21MH071414 · NIMH · TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM · PI ALEXANDER, GERIANNE M · 2004 to 2005
$346k
NIMH NIH HHS MH071414NIMH NIH HHS R21 MH071414
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A novel version of the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) that alternated the standard block figures with three-dimensional human figures was administered to 99 men and 129 women. Women and men differed predictably in their retrospective reports of childhood play and digit ratios, a putative measure of prenatal androgen action. Compared to the block figure items, human figure items on the modified MRT were associated with an improvement in performance in both sexes. However, consistent with the study hypothesis, the enhancing effect of the human figure condition on performance as measured by conventional scores was smaller in men compared to women and not at all evident in men when performance was measured by ratio scores. A closer inspection of the human figures effects on test scores showed performance in women improved for both male and female figure items. In contrast, relative to scores on block figure items, performance in men improved when stimuli were male figures but did not improve when stimuli were female figures. These results add to the evidence that the magnitude of sex differences in scores on the MRT may vary according to the test content and item properties. The findings suggest that online measures of cognitive processing in response to different classes of test stimuli (e.g., animate vs. inanimate objects, self-relevant vs. neutral stimuli) may prove useful in research aimed at understanding the hormonal and social factors contributing to the sex difference in performance on the MRT.

Indexed as

AdolescentAdultAttentionFemaleForm PerceptionHumansImaginationMaleMental ProcessesPattern Recognition, VisualPhotic StimulationSex FactorsSpace Perception

Identifiers

PMID18036595
PMCPMC2683583

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.