NO SEX DIFFERENCES IN PERFORMANCE ON A COMPUTER-BASED MENTAL ROTATIONS TASK

Abstract

Males have been shown to perform better than women on several spatial ability tasks. One of the most common and consistent sex difference in spatial ability is the ability to mentally rotate three-dimensional objects. There are numerous reports of men excelling in pen-and-paper versions of the mental rotation task (MRT) compared to women. However, previous research suggests that there is no sex difference in mental rotation using an online version of the MRT. The present study sought to determine whether or not there are sex differences on an online version of the MRT. We hypothesized that males would out-perform females in the present study, as prior reports have observed a male advantage on this task. However, we report no sex difference on the online MRT used in the present study. This is likely due to overall poorer performance on the online MRT and perhaps motivational differences when using an online task versus an in-person pen-and-paper task.