Abstract:

Within the ability of thinking spatially, mental rotation is the area in which more gender differences favouring males have been addressed. Although literature show consistent results, recent studies question if these gender differences can be caused by the way mental rotation tests and tasks are designed. More specifically, they suggest that the abstract representation of objects might be an advantage for boys, as they are similar to the representation of figures used in some videogames, which they are generally more familiar with.

Therefore, four different types of stimuli for mental rotation tasks have been developed in order to compare learners’ performance:
(1) classic stimuli in which only the edges of the figures were visible;
(2) grey-shaded figures that showed the edges and the surfaces of the objects;
(3) coloured figures that differentiate each part; and
(4) rendered figures that showed the objects in a picture-like way.

This work presents an analysis of the effects of using four different types of stimuli in mental rotation tasks on students’ outcomes and gender differences. Participants (N = 1077; Mage = 13.85) completed a 24-question test that included seven tasks per type of stimuli using the spatial thinking skills training platform RIF 3.0 (http://rif4you.eu). Preliminary findings suggest that the most advantageous figures are the rendered ones. Moreover, both boys and girls seem to benefit more from this type of stimuli, although boys continue scoring higher than girls. This work intends to provide new insights into the matter of gender differences in spatial skills to adapt instruction and evaluation materials into non-biased versions that allow individuals to develop their best potential regardless of their gender.

Keywords:

Spatial thinking, gender differences, spatial ability, mental rotation, visual stimuli.