An early sex difference in the relation between mental rotation and object preference

Area of Science:

• Developmental psychology
• Cognitive neuroscience
• Human behavior

Background:

• Sex differences in mental rotation tasks emerge early, with males often outperforming females.
• Early-emerging sex differences in object preference precede childhood sex-typed play.
• The developmental origins of the link between play preferences and visuospatial abilities are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare mental rotation ability and object preference in 6- to 13-month-old infants.
• To investigate individual differences in infants' mental rotation skills.
• To examine sex differences in object preference and their relation to mental rotation.

Main Methods:

• A novel experimental paradigm was employed to assess infants' mental rotation abilities.
• Infants' differential preference for sex-typed objects (toy truck vs. doll) was measured.
• Infant participants' ages ranged from 6 to 13 months.

Main Results:

• A significant sex difference was observed in mental rotation performance, favoring boys.
• Boys exhibited greater visual attention to a male-typed object compared to girls.
• A sex-specific relationship was found: greater interest in male-typed objects correlated with higher mental rotation performance in boys, but not girls.

Conclusions:

• Sex differences in both mental rotation and object preference are evident in infancy.
• The association between visuospatial skills and object preference varies by sex in early development.
• Potential explanations include perceptual biases, prenatal androgen exposure, and experiential factors.