Age effects in mental rotation are due to the use of a different strategy

Older participants are slower than younger individuals in rotating objects in their minds. One possible explanation for this age effect in mental rotation (MR) relies on the different strategies used. To explore this possiblity, in the present study, younger and older participants were assessed with two MR tasks with three- (Exp.1) and two-dimensional objects (Exp.2)with different complexity levels. In both experiments, the performance of the two age groups was comparable in simple objects. However, systematic differences were observed between the MR rates of younger and older adults while processing complex objects. Younger participants were faster in processing complex than simple objects, whereas older participants were slower in rotating complex as compared to simple objects. These results revealed that different strategies were selected by the two age groups when rotating complex objects. A simplified representation of the objects was transformed by younger participants, while older participants rotated the objects piece-by-piece.