Gender Differences In Mental Rotation Ability Of Pupils Of Different Ages And Its Influencing Factors

Mental rotation ability was related to individual space capabilities and intelligence, Individual study of mental rotation ability is the important task of psychology. Discussion on this issue provided important reference for practical teaching.Experiments one continued Mannor and Nady Hoyek’s study about the appeaence gender differences age in mental rotation. Mental rotation test was used to test the ability of pupils of different ages tried on two dimensional or three dimensional space of the graphic rotation exists sex differences or not. A total of144pupils were selected as experimental subjects. The low age group include (mean age7.7years)72pupils, including36boys and36girls, The high age group include (mean age9.9years)72pupils, including36boys and36girls, Using2(gender: male,female) x2(age:the high age group, the lower age group) x3(experimental material types:Animal graphics, letters graphics,three-dimensional graphics) three factors mixed experimental design.Experiment two, according to Corinna on gender differences influence factor research, selected72students from six grade as experimental subjects,36boys,36girls. Using2(gender:male, female)×2(test time:8minutes, unlimited)×2(task difficulty:easy to judge right and wrong, four choose two) of the three factors mixed experimental design. Study on complexity of the stimulus material and there is no time limit on the impact of gender differences in mental rotation experiment. Through these two studies, concluding that:(1) the main effect of gender differences was significant, boys in all test scores were significantly higher than girls score; the main effect of age was not significant, and there is no significant difference between the high age group test scores and low age group scores; the main effect of test materials significantly, three-dimensional graphics was significantly less than the animal and letter patterns in scoring.(2) the interaction effect between the type of gender, age was not significant. (3) the main effect of time significant,The case of a time-limited test score was significantly lower than no time limit score;the main effect of task difficulty significant, Difficult task scored significantly less than simple task score;(4) gender and task difficulty significant interaction, in the simple version of the test subjects were not significant gender differences, gender differences were tested in the complex version of the test is significant, boys do better than girls.