Sex differences in tests of mental rotation: Direct manipulation of strategies with eye-tracking

We conducted what is likely the first large-scale comprehensive eye tracking investigation of the cognitive processes involved in the psychometric mental rotation task with three experiments comparing the performance of men and women on tests of mental rotation with blocks and human figures as stimuli. In all 3 experiments, men achieved higher mean accuracy than women on both tests and all participants showed improved performance on the human figures compared with the blocks. Experiment 1 used a moving window paradigm to elicit a piecemeal processing strategy, whereas Experiment 2 utilized that approach to encourage a holistic processing strategy. In these 2 experiments the pattern of eye fixations suggested that differences in processing between blocks and human figures can be accounted for by the greater difficulty of rotating block compared with human figures. Results also produced little support for the hypothesis that men favor a holistic strategy whereas women favor a piecemeal approach. In addition, these experiments did not support the notion that using human figures as stimuli promotes a holistic strategy whereas block figures invoke a piecemeal strategy. As a follow up, in Experiment 3 we used a free viewing procedure and examined 4 possible explanations of sex differences in mental rotation predicting different patterns of eye tracking (cognitive processing style, leaping, ocular efficiency) or offline processing (working memory). Results provided partial support for variations of the cognitive processing style hypotheses. The implications for common explanations of sex differences in mental rotation are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).