Touching up mental rotation: effects of manual experience on 6-month-old infants' mental object rotation.

In this study, 6-month-olds' ability to mentally rotate objects was investigated using the violation-of-expectation paradigm. Forty infants watched an asymmetric object being moved straight down behind an occluder. When the occluder was lowered, it revealed the original object (possible) or its mirror image (impossible) in one of five orientations. Whereas half of the infants were allowed to manually explore the object prior to testing, the other half was only allowed to observe the object. Results showed that infants with prior hands-on experience looked significantly longer at the mirror image, while infants with observational experience did not discriminate between test events. These findings demonstrate that 6-month-olds' mental rotations benefit from manual exploration, highlighting the importance of motor experience for cognitive performance.

[1]  Su-Hua Wang,et al.  Mental spatial transformations in 14- and 16-month-old infants: effects of action and observational experience. , 2014, Child development.

[2]  G. Schwarzer,et al.  Crawling is associated with mental rotation ability by 9‐month‐old infants. , 2013 .

[3]  Nora S. Newcombe,et al.  Using a touch screen paradigm to assess the development of mental rotation between 3½ and 5½ years of age , 2013, Cognitive Processing.

[4]  Scott P. Johnson,et al.  Mental Rotation of Dynamic, Three-Dimensional Stimuli by 3-Month-Old Infants. , 2011, Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies.

[5]  N. Newcombe,et al.  Early Education for Spatial Intelligence: Why, What, and How , 2010 .

[6]  D. Lubinski,et al.  Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance. , 2009 .

[7]  H. Krist,et al.  Imagery and Motor Processes — When Are They Connected? The Mental Rotation of Body Parts in Development , 2009 .

[8]  Moritz M. Daum,et al.  Effects of action on children's and adults' mental imagery. , 2009, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[9]  Moritz M. Daum,et al.  Motor Processes in Children's Mental Rotation , 2009 .

[10]  P. Quinn,et al.  A Sex Difference in Mental Rotation in Young Infants , 2008, Psychological science.

[11]  F. Agnoli,et al.  Children's performance in mental rotation tasks: orientation-free features flatten the slope. , 2008, Developmental science.

[12]  J. Call,et al.  Tracking and inferring spatial rotation by children and great apes. , 2008, Developmental psychology.

[13]  A. Volein,et al.  Recognition of complex object-centred spatial configurations in early infancy , 2007 .

[14]  T. Wilcox,et al.  Multisensory exploration and object individuation in infancy. , 2007, Developmental psychology.

[15]  R. Lickliter,et al.  Up Versus Down: The Role of Intersensory Redundancy in the Development of Infants' Sensitivity to the Orientation of Moving Objects. , 2006, Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies.

[16]  Stella F. Lourenco,et al.  Socioeconomic Status Modifies the Sex Difference in Spatial Skill , 2005, Psychological science.

[17]  P. Brugger,et al.  Motor processes in children's imagery: the case of mental rotation of hands. , 2005, Developmental science.

[18]  J. Sommerville,et al.  Action experience alters 3-month-old infants' perception of others' actions , 2005, Cognition.

[19]  Ana R. Delgado,et al.  Cognitive mediators and sex-related differences in mathematics , 2004 .

[20]  A. Needham,et al.  A pick-me-up for infants’ exploratory skills: Early simulated experiences reaching for objects using ‘sticky mittens’ enhances young infants’ object exploration skills , 2002 .

[21]  D. Lubinski,et al.  Importance of Assessing Spatial Ability in Intellectually Talented Young Adolescents: A 20-Year Longitudinal Study. , 2001 .

[22]  P. Rochat.  Object Manipulation and Exploration in 2-to 5-Month-Old Infants , 2001 .

[23]  David I. Anderson,et al.  Travel Broadens the Mind. , 2000, Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies.

[24]  E. Gibson,et al.  An Ecological Approach to Perceptual Learning and Development , 2000 .

[25]  Diane F. Halpern,et al.  Sex differences in visuospatial working memory: Components of cognitive processing , 1999, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[26]  J. Huttenlocher,et al.  Early sex differences in spatial skill. , 1999, Developmental psychology.

[27]  D. Estes,et al.  Young children's awareness of their mental activity: the case of mental rotation. , 1998, Child development.

[28]  Susan J. Hespos,et al.  Tracking and anticipation of invisible spatial transformations by 4- to 8-month-old infants☆ , 1996 .

[29]  S. Kosslyn,et al.  Age differences in imagery abilities. , 1990, Child development.

[30]  S. Kosslyn.  Image and mind , 1982 .

[31]  J. E. Platt,et al.  Mental Rotation Task Performance as a Function of Age and Training , 1981 .

[32]  S. Kosslyn.  The medium and the message in mental imagery: A theory. , 1981 .

[33]  G. S. Marmor.  Mental Rotation and Number Conservation: Are They Related?. , 1977 .

[34]  G. S. Marmor.  Development of kinetic images: When does the child first represent movement in mental images? , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[35]  R. Shepard,et al.  The time required to prepare for a rotated stimulus , 1973, Memory & cognition.

[36]  R. Shepard,et al.  Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects , 1971, Science.

[37]  Jean Piaget,et al.  Mental Imagery In The Child: A Study Of The Development Of Imaginal Representation , 1971 .

[38]  J. Bruner,et al.  Studies In Cognitive Growth , 1966 .

[39]  K. Glaser.  The Origins of Intelligence in Children , 1964 .

[40]  F. J. Langdon,et al.  The Child's Conception of Space , 1967 .