Psychol Sci. 2008 Nov;19(11):1063-6.

Mental rotation in human infants: a sex difference.

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Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles, CA 91711,USA. dmoore@pitzer.edu

Abstract

A sex difference on mental-rotation tasks has been demonstrated repeatedly, but not in children less than 4 years of age. To demonstrate mental rotation in human infants, we habituated 5-month-old infants to an object revolving through a 240 degrees angle. In successive test trials, infants saw the habituation object or its mirror image revolving through a previously unseen 120 degrees angle. Only the male infants appeared to recognize the familiar object from the new perspective, a feat requiring mental rotation. These data provide evidence for a sex difference in mental rotation of an object through three-dimensional space, consistently seen in adult populations.

PMID:: 19076473; [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMCID: PMC2651884

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