Are developments in mental scanning and mental rotation related?

Abstract

The development and relation of mental scanning and mental rotation were examined in 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-year old children and adults (N = 102). Based on previous findings from adults and ageing populations, the key question was whether they develop as a set of related abilities and become increasingly differentiated or are unrelated abilities per se. Findings revealed that both mental scanning and rotation abilities develop between 4- and 6 years of age. Specifically, 4-year-olds showed no difference in accuracy of mental scanning and no scanning trials whereas all older children and adults made more errors in scanning trials. Additionally, the minority of 4-year-olds showed a linear increase in response time with increasing rotation angle difference of two stimuli in contrast to all older participants. Despite similar developmental trajectories, mental scanning and rotation performances were unrelated. Thus, adding to research findings from adults, mental scanning and rotation appear to develop as a set of unrelated abilities from the outset. Different underlying abilities such as visual working memory and spatial coding versus representing past and future events are discussed.

Mental imagery and visual working memory abilities appear to be unrelated in childhood: evidence for individual differences in strategy use

“…activating information from long-term memory, compared to Image Maintenance (Kosslyn et al, 2006;Kosslyn et al, 1990;Wimmer et al, 2015). Wimmer et al (2017) also found no relationships between response times in Mental Rotation and Image Scanning when age was controlled for and the authors concluded that the processes were distinct. However, it should be noted that 10-year-olds and adults performed at ceiling in the Mental Rotation and…”

“…The ability to create, maintain and manipulate mental images can play a vital role in a child's ability to make sense of their world; whether it be picturing the characters and scenes whilst learning to read, visualising a complete jigsaw or navigating their environment. To date, there are just three studies that have investigated the development of these components of MI and how they relate to one another in children, and these have yielded inconsistent results (Kosslyn et al, 1990;Wimmer et al, 2015Wimmer et al, , 2017. Evidence for the development of Image Generation and Image Maintenance appear to be largely dependent on the tasks employed.…”

“…Maintenance, investigation of Mental Rotation and Image Scanning tasks have shown robust effects in both childhood and adulthood. For Mental Rotation, there is strong evidence for a linear time-degree of rotation effect (response times increase as a function of increasing degrees of rotation) from age 5 (Borst et al, 2011;Estes, 1998;Frick, Ferrara, & Newcombe, 2013;Ganis & Kievit, 2015;Shepard & Metzler, 1971;Wimmer et al, 2017).…”

“…To date, Kosslyn et al's (1990) (Wimmer et al, 2015); and Mental Rotation to Image Scanning (Wimmer et al, 2017). While associations were not tested, Wimmer et al (2015) found participants demonstrated lower accuracy and slower response times in Image Generation compared to Image Maintenance.…”

“…Therefore, examining which components of MI are related to VWM performance throughout development will further elucidate how MI underpins individual differences in VWM and whether this varies over developmental time. While it has been speculated that variation in the involvement of VWM might play a role in the relationship between components of MI (Wimmer et al, 2017), developmental studies are yet to directly examine the relationship between MI abilities and VWM.…”