ArticlePsychological research2016
Sex differences in chronometric mental rotation with human bodies.
Article in Psychological research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Manual training of mental rotation performance: Visual representation of rotating figures is the main driver for improvements.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2022Trial
- Hand use predicts mental rotation ability in a sex-specific manner.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Reduced human-body advantage in mental rotation among patients with knee osteoarthritis.Experimental brain research · 2025Article
- The influence of the design of mental rotation trials on performance and possible differences between sexes: A theoretical review and experimental investigation.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2024Review
- Protective effects of education on the cognitive decline in a mental rotation task using real models: a pilot study with middle and older aged adults.Psychological research · 2023Article
- Pupillometry as a measure of cognitive load in mental rotation tasks with abstract and embodied figures.Psychological research · 2022Article
- Gender stereotypes and incremental beliefs in STEM and non-STEM students in three countries: relationships with performance in cognitive tasks.Psychological research · 2021Article
- Correlational Evidence for the Role of Spatial Perspective-Taking Ability in the Mental Rotation of Human-Like Objects.Experimental psychology · 2021Article
- Mental rotation with abstract and embodied objects as stimuli: evidence from event-related potential (ERP).Experimental brain research · 2020Article
- Mental rotation of sequentially presented 3D figures: sex and sex hormones related differences in behavioural and ERP measures.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Chubby hands or little fingers: sex differences in hand representation.Psychological research · 2019Article
- The Effect of Body-Related Stimuli on Mental Rotation in Children, Young and Elderly Adults.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Brain Encoding of Social Approach: Is it Associated With Spatial Ability?Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
- From What Age Is Mental Rotation Training Effective? Differences in Preschool Age but Not in Sex.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- Approaching behavior reduces gender differences in the mental rotation performance.Psychological research · 2017Article
- The Relationship between Expertise in Sports, Visuospatial, and Basic Cognitive Skills.Frontiers in psychology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The present experiment investigated sex differences across stimulus types in a chronometric mental rotation task. The working hypothesis was that human bodies as stimuli would reduce the magnitude of sex differences compared to cubes as stimuli, from the embodied cognition perspective. One hundred and twenty participants, 60 men and 60 women solved chronometric mental rotation items with Shepard-Metzler cube figures, head-cubes, and human bodies, all designed so that they were similar in shape. Two figures of a given stimulus type were presented on the screen and participants had to judge if both items were mirrored or non-mirrored. Results showed better mental rotation performance with human bodies than with other types of stimuli for both sexes, although the effect of stimulus type was more pronounced in men than in women. Furthermore, regardless of stimulus type, men were more accurate than women. Altogether, the results suggest that sex differences are not reduced when human bodies are used as stimuli in a chronometric task. Implications for accounts of sex differences in mental rotations are discussed.
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Registered trials
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.