Mental Rotation Task Performance as a Function of Age and Training

Abstract

Summary Forty trained and untrained 5- and 8-year-olds were given Marmor's mental rotation task (MRT) to assess their use of kinetic imagery. Contrary to her findings, untrained 5-year-olds did not produce the linear relationship between reaction time and angle associated with kinetic imagery. Irrespective of training condition, 5-year-olds had high error rates for figures discrepant by more than 90°. The lack of a relationship between individual linear trends and error rates, and children's self-reported use of other strategies, suggests that there are effective strategies other than kinetic imagery for solving the MRT.