Enhancement of mental rotation abilities and its effect on anatomy learning

Mental rotation (MR) is improved through practice and high MR ability is correlated to success in anatomy learning.

We investigated the effects of improving the MR ability on the Vandenberg and Kuse MR test performance and the consequences on learning functional human anatomy.

Forty-eight students were assigned into three groups: MR group (16 students attending functional anatomy course and MR training), anatomy group (16 students attending the same functional anatomy course), and the control group (n = 16). Instead of MR training, the latter 2 groups were engaged in physical activities for an equivalent time, and the control group did not attend anatomy course.

MR group performed better than the two others in the MR test and better than the anatomy group in the anatomy test.

The MR training sessions were found to improve MR test performance and were further transferred to anatomy learning.