For comparison, here are the results from a sample of 720 college students who participated in a similar mental rotation experiment in 2001. The graph is not as smooth and clean as the Shepard graphs, but it illustrates another interesting aspect of the research on mental rotation. There was a statistically significant sex difference, in that males performed faster than females at almost every orientation.
This sex difference in performance is a common finding on spatial tasks. It has led some theorists to propose that males, on average, are slightly better at the form of thinking that involves manipulating mental images, while females are slightly better at the form of thinking that involves manipulating verbal concepts.
Reaction Time by Rotation and Gender
The Metal Rotation Experiment: Results
| RT | 0 | 60 | 120 | 180 | 240 | 300 | 360 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 0.1 sec | 0.2 sec | 0.3 sec | 0.4 sec | 0.3 sec | 0.2 sec | 0.1 sec |
| Backward | 0.2 sec | 0.3 sec | 0.4 sec | 0.5 sec | 0.4 sec | 0.3 sec | 0.2 sec |
| Combined | 0.3 sec | 0.4 sec | 0.5 sec | 0.6 sec | 0.5 sec | 0.4 sec | 0.3 sec |
Review of key points
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When people think about how to solve a problem, they typically manipulate verbal concepts. For example, you solved the candle problem by manipulating the concepts "candle", "match", and "lighting a candle" until you arrived at a plan of action: "Move the match to the candle wick."
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But not all thinking depends on verbal concepts. A quite different form of thinking involves manipulating mental images — the "pictures in your head" that allow you to think about things that can't be expressed easily in words.
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These mental images can be moved and rotated "in your head" to solve problems and make decisions.
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The amount of times required to rotate an object "in your head" increases predictable as the amount of rotation (angular distance) increases, just as it would if you were rotating the actual object in your head.