Introduction
Mental rotation is a cognitive skill in which individuals mentally transform and manipulate two-dimensional and three-dimensional figures. A few studies that have conducted mental rotation tasks have shown that there was a male advantage in accuracy over females. The earliest study done on mental rotation was done in 1971 by Roger N. Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler. In their study, two images of three-dimensional objects made up of cubes were side to side and subjects were required to determine the identity of shape in relation to the angular difference and make a decision on whether the images were the same or different (Shepard and Metzler 1971). According to a random sequence, in half of the pairs, “same” pairs, the two objects could be rotated into congruence with one another, and in the other half, “different” pairs, the two objects differed both reflection and rotation and could not be rotated into congruence with one another (Shepard and Metzler 1971). The reaction time was found to increase linearly with angular difference of the three-dimensional objects (Shepard and Metzler 1971).
A study in 2008 by Angelica Moè, Chiara Meneghetti and Mara Cadinu was done in order to test the effects of beliefs and use of spatial strategies on mental rotation test performance. They hypothesized that incremental theory women would be more likely to reach good performance by using strategic behaviors, whereas, women who perceive that they can tackle masculine tasks would be more likely to use the most effective strategies to undertake the spatial tasks (Moè, Meneghetti, Cadinu 2008). They used a computerized 10-item modified version of MRT (mental rotation test) of the original test by Vandenberg and Kuse (Moè, Meneghetti, Cadinu 2008). Participants in this study were individually tested and were told that the test they were performing would be timed and should be completed within four minutes (Moè, Meneghetti, Cadinu 2008). A difference in accuracy was found on the MRT between spatial and non-spatial solvers (Moè, Meneghetti, Cadinu 2008). They found that women’s MRT performance depends on the use of spatial strategies, which in turn is indeed affected by the incremental theory of masculine tasks (Moè, Meneghetti, Cadinu 2008). “The more a woman perceives herself as competent in masculine tasks, the better her performance in MRT” (Moè, Meneghetti, Cadinu 2008).
Another study done in 2008 by Sheila Brownlow, Stephanie E. Valentine and Alvin Owusu examined whether nullifying a stereotypic threat about sex-related abilities in mental rotation in female athletes increased aptitude with rotations. Participants completed the experiment in return to receive partial course credit and each was told she would be asked to complete mental rotation tasks that determined their ability to perform complex spatial maneuvers (Brownlow, Valentine, Owusu 2008). The participants were given verbal instructions that were read from a printed sheet and they sat alone in a cubicle to complete their rotation exercises (Brownlow, Valentine, Owusu 2008). The post hoc Scheffé test was done and it indicated that athletes who heard that the MRT were like those in which were used in sports performed significantly less well than athletes who only heard that they needed to perform MRT (Brownlow, Valentine, Owusu 2008). The explicit nullification of a stereotype threat led to female athletes having a poor mental rotation performance upon being compared to peer for whom the threat was “assumed to be in the air” but did not negatively influence nonathletes in their mental rotation performance (Brownlow, Valentine, Owusu 2008).
More recent research done in 2017 by Alexander P. Boone and Mary Hegarty found that after conducting two experiments there was a significant male advantage in accuracy. However, upon conducting two more experiments, this male advantage was only evident when all foils used in the experiments were structure foils, meaning that mental rotation was not necessary (Boone and Hegarty 2017). In the four experiments conducted, they examined the performance of both men and women using different versions of the VK and SM mental rotation tasks (Boone and Hegarty 2017). It was found that in three of the four experiments, there were sex differences in accuracy (male participants were more accurate than women) for the trails that could have either been solved by orientation independent strategies or mental rotation (Boone and Hegarty 2017). On the other hand, the fourth experiment yielded different results, as when participants were guided to use only an orientation independent strategy, sex differences were no longer evident (Boone and Hegarty 2017).
Method
Participants
This experiment tested female college students. These students were chosen at random and were randomly assigned a condition. These conditions being: no stereotype, stereotype boost and stereotype. Upon being assigned to a specific condition, they proceeded to have the guidelines of the experiment read to them to ensure they understood what the procedure was. There was a total of 49 participants in this study. According to each condition there was a total of (N=16) no stereotype, (N=16) stereotype boost and (N=17) stereotype.
Apparatus
In order to measure the participants on the mental rotation tasks, they were taken into a lab room which contained a desktop set up for them to take a test. This test consisted of going through 30 slides, each containing two figures in which the participant had to determine whether or not the figures were the same or if they were mirrored images. The only variable measured for this test was the participants’ scores.
Results
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to test the effect of stereotype threat on mental rotation task accuracy. The conditions tested were stereotype (n=17), stereotype boost (n=16), and no stereotype (n=16). There is a significant effect of stereotype threat on mental rotation task accuracy at the p<0.5 level for the three conditions [F (2) = 4.36, p=.018]. Post hoc comparisons using the Bonferroni test indicated that the mean score for the stereotype (M = 18.35, SD= 5.47) was significantly different than the no stereotype condition (M=22.88, SD=3.52). However, the stereotype boost condition (M=20.38, SD=3.90) did not significantly differ from the stereotype and no stereotype condition. These results suggest that stereotype threat does have an effect on mental rotation task accuracy. Specifically, when women are not stereotyped their performance is higher on the mental rotation task however when they are stereotyped their performance is lower.