The Relation between Sign Language Skill and Spatial Visualization Ability: Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects

Abstract

The present study was designed to ascertain whether a relationship exists between the experience of an individual in American Sign Language (ASL) and performance on the Mental Rotations Test. 51 women were divided into three groups on the basis of self-reported ASL skill (years of experience). All subjects then completed the Mental Rotations Test, a paper-and-pencil test of spatial ability. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was also administered to examine possible apprehension about evaluation. Significant differences in scores on mental rotations were found, with 18 experienced signers scoring significantly higher than either mean of the two less experienced groups ( ns = 16 and 17). It appears that people experienced in ASL perform better on the Mental Rotations Test. No evidence for a difference in anxiety related to the amount of experience a person had in ASL was found.

How Important Is the Digital Divide? The Relation of Computer and Videogame Usage to Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Ability

“…3 Scores on the MRT can be calculated with 20 possible points (one point if both items are correct in each question; Talbot & Haude, 1993;Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978;Vandenberg, Kuse, & Vogler, 1985) or with 40 possible points (one point given per correct item, two per question) (Casey, Colon, & Goris, 1992;McClurg & Chaille, 1987). A meta-analysis of gender differences among 35 different studies using the MRT showed significant gender differences with both scoring methods (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995).…”

The bimodal bilingual brain: Effects of sign language experience

“…Using versions of the classic Shepard andMetzler (1971) mental rotation task, McKee (1987) and Emmorey, Kosslyn, and Bellugi (1993) found that hearing and deaf signers outperformed hearing non-signers at all degrees of rotation. Further, Talbot and Haude (1993) showed that mental rotation ability was correlated with skill level in American Sign Language (ASL). Emmorey, Klima, and Hickok (1998) hypothesized that enhanced mental rotation skills arise from the need to spatially transform locations within signing space to understand topographic descriptions.…”

Differences in Mental Rotation Strategies for Native Speakers of Chinese and English and How They Vary As a Function of Sex and College Major

“…The latter is a hand-/gesture-mediated linguistic system that requires extensive spatial processing. Of particular relevance to the present study is the fact that ASL signers demonstrate heightened image-generation capability, increased ability at detecting mirror-image reversals (Emmorey, Kosslyn, & Bellugi, 1993), superior spatial working memory (West & Bauer, 1999;Wilson & Emmorey, 2000;Wilson, Bettger, Niculae, & Klima, 1997), and often enhanced mental rotation abilities (Emmorey, Klima, & Hickok, 1998;Talbot & Haude, 1993). Thus, in a parallel sense, given that the processing of Chinese (particularly the analysis of its complex written characters) involves considerable spatially mediated/right-hemisphere functioning, it may be that the acquisition and long-term use of Chinese will result in a concomitant enhancement of spatial ability in those speakers, as compared to native English speakers, the latter being a language that does not emphasize spatial processing.…”