Type of items and the magnitude of gender differences on the mental rotations test

Type of items and the magnitude of gender differences on the mental rotations test

The present study considered the structure of the drawings used in the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) to examine whether distractors that are either a mirror image or structurally different from the target as well as response alternatives with occluded and nonoccluded parts affect the magnitude of gender differences on this test. One hundred and three women and 100 men undergraduate students were given unlimited time to complete the MRT. A gender by occlusion interaction on correct responses showed that gender differences were larger for occluded than for nonoccluded items. Examination of performance as a function of item placement in the test suggested that it is unlikely that the results could be accounted for by differential practice effects in women and men. Implications of these results for explanations of gender differences on the MRT and for the training of spatial abilities are discussed.

本研究考虑了心理旋转测试（MRT）中所使用图形的结构，以检验那些与目标呈镜像关系或结构不同的干扰项，以及具有遮挡部分和无遮挡部分的反应选项是否会影响该测试中性别差异的程度。103名女大学生和100名男大学生被给予无限制的时间来完成心理旋转测试。正确反应上的性别与遮挡的交互作用表明，有遮挡项目的性别差异比无遮挡项目更大。对测试中项目位置相关表现的考察表明，这些结果不太可能是由男女不同的练习效应所导致的。本文讨论了这些结果对心理旋转测试中性别差异的解释以及对空间能力训练的启示。