Rotational complexity in mental rotation tests: Cognitive processes in tasks requiring mental rotation around cardinal and skewed rotation axes

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Nils Nolte
  • Florian Schmitz
  • Jens Fleischer
  • Maximilian Bungart
  • Detlev Leutner

Mental rotation tests have been extensively studied regarding item characteristics that affect difficulty, e.g., angular disparity, item dimensionality, and object complexity. In the present study, using the Vandenberg and Kuse (1978) paradigm, we applied a psychometric approach to examine whether complex skewed-axis rotation requires incremental processes that can be distinguished from simple cardinal-axis rotation. Participants (N = 372) completed a battery of cognitive tests, including a mental-rotation test requiring mental rotation of Shepard and Metzler type figures around a single cardinal axis or around two cardinal axes (resulting in a skewed-axis rotation). When comparing a nested-factor measurement model to a one-factor model, results showed that complex skewed-axis rotation is not identifiable as a nested specific factor. This suggests that the processes resulting in individual differences in mental rotation are either the same in both item types, or at least substantially correlated. Including spatial visualization tests and reasoning tests in a prediction model suggested that participants used spatial strategies over and above reasoning to solve the mental rotation items. These results generalize the findings of Just and Carpenter (1985) on simple cardinal-axis and complex skewed-axis rotation of cubes to more complex objects that allow more flexible mental rotations. It can be concluded that mental rotation represents a unitary ability. From an individual-differences perspective, this ability can be assessed equally with simple cardinal-axis and complex skewed-axis rotation items.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer101626
ZeitschriftIntelligence
Jahrgang91
Anzahl der Seiten11
ISSN0160-2896
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.03.2022
Extern publiziertJa

Dokumente

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Methane yield of biomass from extensive grassland is affected by compositional changes induced by order of arrival
  2. Simulation and optimization of material and energy flow systems
  3. Machine vision system for UAV navigation
  4. Performance Saga: Interview 07
  5. The Meaning of Higher-Order Factors in Reflective-Measurement Models
  6. "The (real) world is not enough:" Motivational drivers and user behavior in virtual worlds
  7. Comparison of different machine control modes during friction extrusion of AA2024
  8. Towards a Deconstruction of the Screen
  9. How to Explain Major Policy Change Towards Sustainability? Bringing Together the Multiple Streams Framework and the Multilevel Perspective on Socio-Technical Transitions to Explore the German “Energiewende”
  10. Political embedding of climate assemblies. How effective strategies for policy impact depend on context
  11. Using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix to synthesize biofuel and bioenergy impact assessment results
  12. Temporal variations of perfluoroalkyl substances and polybrominated diphenyl ethers in alpine snow
  13. Conventional teaching vs. e-learning
  14. Contextualising urban experimentation
  15. Wasted compliance strategies? The policy-making styles of Hungary and Poland in the implementation of European environmental directives
  16. Elektroaltgeräte
  17. Ubiquitous Memory
  18. A mixed-methods study of the impact of sociocultural adaptation on the development of pragmatic production
  19. The rhetorical structure of marketisation in selected emails of tertiary institutions
  20. Reintegration strategies in a gender perspective
  21. ChatGPT and Its Genre Competence
  22. Costs of Inaction and Costs of Action in Climate Protection
  23. Academic discipline and risk perception of technologies
  24. Krise oder goldenes Zeitalter?
  25. Effect of calcium addition on the hot working behavior of as-cast AZ31 magnesium alloy
  26. Cross-National Complementarity of Technology Push, Demand Pull, and Manufacturing Push Policies
  27. Everyone’s Going to be an Architect
  28. Assessing quality in cross-country comparisons of health systems and policies
  29. Fabian Nitschkowski & Paul Geisler
  30. Creep and hot working behavior of a new magnesium alloy Mg-3Sn-2Ca
  31. Network measures of mixing