Abstract:

Mental rotation (MR) abilities underlie the capacity to produce the mental image of an object and to rotate it under different perspectives. MR belongs to the area of spatial ability (Linn and Petersen, 1985) and may be considered as an important aspect of intellectual performance (Johnson and Bouchard, 2005).

Several studies have found a relationship between the performance level in MR measured by specific tests, for example by the Vandenbergh and Kuse Mental Rotations Test (VMRT; Vandenbergh and Kuse, 1978), and the performance of diverse human activities (Jansen, Kellner, and Rieder, 2013). Notably, Thompson et al. (2013) have found a link between MR ability and basic numerical representations in students while Cheng and Mix (2014) found an effect of MR training on the performance of missing terms problems in children (6-8 years old).

The cerebral motor areas involved in MR have also been identified (Zacks, 2008), notably suggesting the relevance of MR in sport and physical education (PE) (Hoyek et al., 2014). A great amount of research has concerned the study of the relationship between MR and motor processes, much less is however known about the effect of physical activity on the performance of MR tasks, despite few studies suggesting that PE may improve MR performance (e.g. Jansen, Kellner, and Rieder, 2013). The aim of the present study was thus to examine the possible effects of PE on both MR and mathematics abilities.

Two MR pre-tests were administered to 35 young male subjects (18-19 years of age) corresponding to two different stimuli (Kosslyn et al., 1998): 1) the VMRT, a test based on perspective line drawings, each of them representing a structure made of ten cubes relied face-to-face and with three “elbows”, and 2) a body MR “test” (BMRT) exactly designed on the bases of the VMRT except that the stimuli were images of postures of a computer made human body.

The subjects also performed two series of tasks involving mathematics abilities:
1) a maximum comparisons from a list of pairs of two-digit numbers, to determine which of the two numbers was numerically larger and
2) the maximum number of arithmetic operations drawn from a list given to the subjects.

The effect of PE on MR was studied in the 35 subjects divided in two groups: twenty control subjects practiced no physical activity involving spatial capacities and no MR training during 6 weeks. Fifteen subjects practiced each week a session of 30 mn of training in gymnastic based on movements in rotation (e.g.: vertical jumps with a quarter turn, forward roll, cart wheel). At the end of the 6 weeks both groups performed the same pre-tests tasks.

The statistical analysis is presently running and the results will examine the effect of the physical training on:
1) both MRT performances,
2) number comparisons, and
3) arithmetic operations.

Keywords:

Mathematics abilities, Mental rotation, Physical Education.