We presented professional dancers and non-dancers with videos of two movement styles, dance movements and everyday movements. Participants were asked to indicate by a button press to which category a movement belonged. We computed event-related desynchronization (ERD) in alpha and beta frequency bands between 7.5 and 25 Hz relative to a visual baseline condition. Power in alpha and lower beta frequency bands was significantly reduced if dancers watched dance movements but not if non-dancers watched dance movements, in particular between 1 and 2 s after movement onset. During observation of everyday movements no such group difference was evident. Thus, ERD in alpha and beta frequency bands was modulated by a participant's expertise with a certain movement style. The results are discussed in light of a human observation-execution matching system similar to the macaque mirror neuron system and strengthen the idea of a functional relationship between such a system and rhythmical activity in the alpha and beta frequency bands.

Sex differences in mental rotation were investigated as a function of stimulus complexity with a sample size of N = 72. Replicating earlier findings with polygons, mental rotation was faster for males than for females, and reaction time increased with more complex polygons. Additionally, sex differences increased for complex polygons. Most importantly, however, mental rotation speed decreased with increasing complexity for women but did not change for men. Thus, the sex effects reflect a difference in strategy, with women mentally rotating the polygons in an analytic, piecemeal fashion and men using a holistic mode of mental rotation.

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This study investigated the effect of different organizations of landmark-location pairings as fine-space information on wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge on a total of 90 participants: 30 second graders, 30 sixth graders, and 30 adults. All participants had to find their way to a goal in a virtual environment with either randomized or categorical landmarks, or without any landmarks. Thereafter, they had to find the shortest way from the start position to the goal in two consecutive trials (wayfinding performance), and they had to solve a number of spatial knowledge tasks. The results showed that independent of their categorical function, the existence of landmarks influenced the way-finding performance of adults and children in the same way. Whereas the presence of landmarks had no effect on spatial survey knowledge, landmark knowledge itself was influenced by the categorical function of the landmarks presented. Moreover, second graders showed limited achievement compared to adults independent of the existence of landmarks. The main results implicate firstly that children at school age indeed are able to use landmark-location pairings as fine-space information like adults during learning an unknown environmental space, and secondly that a dissociation between wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge might exist.