An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference

Accumulating evidence suggests that males outperform females on mental rotation tasks as early as infancy. Sex differences in object preference have also been shown to emerge early in development and precede sex-typed play in childhood. Although research with adults and older children is suggestive...

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Main Authors: Jillian Elizabeth Lauer, Hallie B. Udelson, Sung David Jeon, Stella Felix Lourenco
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-05-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00558/full
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spelling doaj-4cef74164a994f11bafadf9ed4b24e252020-11-24T20:53:57ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782015-05-01610.3389/fpsyg.2015.00558133821An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preferenceJillian Elizabeth Lauer0Hallie B. Udelson1Sung David Jeon2Stella Felix Lourenco3Emory UniversityEmory UniversityEmory UniversityEmory UniversityAccumulating evidence suggests that males outperform females on mental rotation tasks as early as infancy. Sex differences in object preference have also been shown to emerge early in development and precede sex-typed play in childhood. Although research with adults and older children is suggestive of a relationship between play preferences and visuospatial abilities, including mental rotation, little is known about the developmental origins of this relationship. The present study compared mental rotation ability and object preference in 6- to 13-month-old infants. We used a novel paradigm to examine individual differences in infants’ mental rotation abilities as well as their differential preference for one of two sex-typed objects. A sex difference was found on both tasks, with boys showing an advantage in performance on the mental rotation task and exhibiting greater visual attention to the male-typed object (i.e., a toy truck) than to the female-typed object (i.e., a doll) in comparison to girls. Moreover, we found a relation between mental rotation and object preference that varied by sex. Greater visual interest in the male-typed object was related to greater mental rotation performance in boys, but not in girls. Possible explanations related to perceptual biases, prenatal androgen exposure, and experiential influences for this sex difference are discussed.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00558/fullInfancymental rotationvisual attentionsex differencesobject preference
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Jillian Elizabeth Lauer
Hallie B. Udelson
Sung David Jeon
Stella Felix Lourenco
spellingShingle Jillian Elizabeth Lauer
Hallie B. Udelson
Sung David Jeon
Stella Felix Lourenco
An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference
Frontiers in Psychology
Infancy
mental rotation
visual attention
sex differences
object preference
author_facet Jillian Elizabeth Lauer
Hallie B. Udelson
Sung David Jeon
Stella Felix Lourenco
author_sort Jillian Elizabeth Lauer
title An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference
title_short An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference
title_full An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference
title_fullStr An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference
title_full_unstemmed An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference
title_sort early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Psychology
issn 1664-1078
publishDate 2015-05-01
description Accumulating evidence suggests that males outperform females on mental rotation tasks as early as infancy. Sex differences in object preference have also been shown to emerge early in development and precede sex-typed play in childhood. Although research with adults and older children is suggestive of a relationship between play preferences and visuospatial abilities, including mental rotation, little is known about the developmental origins of this relationship. The present study compared mental rotation ability and object preference in 6- to 13-month-old infants. We used a novel paradigm to examine individual differences in infants’ mental rotation abilities as well as their differential preference for one of two sex-typed objects. A sex difference was found on both tasks, with boys showing an advantage in performance on the mental rotation task and exhibiting greater visual attention to the male-typed object (i.e., a toy truck) than to the female-typed object (i.e., a doll) in comparison to girls. Moreover, we found a relation between mental rotation and object preference that varied by sex. Greater visual interest in the male-typed object was related to greater mental rotation performance in boys, but not in girls. Possible explanations related to perceptual biases, prenatal androgen exposure, and experiential influences for this sex difference are discussed.
topic Infancy
mental rotation
visual attention
sex differences
object preference
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00558/full
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