Gender differences in mental rotation across adulthood. 2010

Petra Jansen, and Martin Heil
Institute for Experimental Psychology, Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany. Petra.Jansen-Osmann@uni-duesseldorf.de

Although gender differences in mental rotation in younger adults are prominent in paper-pencil tests as well as in chronometric tests with polygons as stimuli, less is known about this topic in the older age ranges. Therefore, performance was assessed with the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) paper-pencil test as well as with a computer-based two-stimulus same-different task with polygons in a sample of 150 adults divided into three age groups, 20-30, 40-50, and 60-70 years. Performance decreased with age, and men outperformed women in all age groups. The gender effect decreased with age in the MRT, possibly due to a floor effect. Gender differences remained constant across age, however, in the error rates of the computer-based task.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008606 Mental Processes Conceptual functions or thinking in all its forms. Information Processing, Human,Human Information Processing
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D009949 Orientation Awareness of oneself in relation to time, place and person. Cognitive Orientation,Mental Orientation,Psychological Orientation,Cognitive Orientations,Mental Orientations,Orientation, Cognitive,Orientation, Mental,Orientation, Psychological,Orientations,Orientations, Cognitive,Orientations, Mental,Orientations, Psychological,Psychological Orientations
D003071 Cognition Intellectual or mental process whereby an organism obtains knowledge. Cognitive Function,Cognitions,Cognitive Functions,Function, Cognitive,Functions, Cognitive
D004192 Discrimination, Psychological Differential response to different stimuli. Discrimination, Psychology,Psychological Discrimination
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000328 Adult A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available. Adults
D000367 Age Factors Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time. Age Reporting,Age Factor,Factor, Age,Factors, Age

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