Girls’ Stuff, boys’ stuff and mental rotation: fourth graders rotate faster with gender-congruent stimuli

• Published in: Journal of cognitive psychology (Hove, England) England), 2019-02, Vol.31 (2), p.225-239
• Main Authors: Ruthsatz, Vera, Rahe, Martina, Schürmann, Linda, Quaiser-Pohl, Claudia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2044-5911; 2044-592X
• DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2019.1567518

Males outperform females in mental-rotation for various reasons, e.g. stimuli characteristics. This study tested the hypothesis that girls and boys solve mental-rotation tests with female- or respectively male-stereotyped objects faster and more correctly. 116 fourth-graders solved a chronometric mental-rotation test with either female- or male-stereotyped action-based objects as stimulus material and reported their solution strategies and familiarity with handling the objects in real life. Boys reacted faster than girls only in the male-stimuli condition, while gender differences were inversed in the female-stimuli condition. All children were faster with gender-congruent material, probably provoked by gender-schematic processing or stereotype lift effects. Furthermore, analytic solving strategies appeared as efficient as holistic strategies in gender-congruent conditions, while holistic strategies were more advantageous only in gender-incongruent conditions. The congruence of stimulus material and gender best predicted children's reaction time. Practical implications are considered regarding the importance of diverse and gender-equalised material to assess mental-rotation skills.