Continuity and Change in Spatial Processing Between Infancy and Adulthood Open Access

Abstract

The ability to generate and transform mental representations of objects is a hallmark of spatial intelligence that facilitates problem solving in myriad contexts. This ability is often studied with mental rotation tasks thought to elicit mental processes analogous to physical rotation and to produce a robust male advantage in performance. Paradoxically, 4-year-olds display limited mental rotation skills when tested explicitly, yet infants perform above chance on implicit mental rotation tasks. Moreover, 4-year-old girls and boys perform similarly on explicit mental rotation tasks, whereas some studies have reported a male advantage in infants’ implicit performance. Thus, it is unclear whether implicit and explicit mental rotation tasks elicit similar processes, whether such processes display developmental continuity between infancy and adulthood, and if so, when gender differences first emerge in ontogeny. The present dissertation addressed these questions through three studies. First, a novel pupillometry task was designed to compare the implicit mental rotation performance of adults (Study 1) and 4-year-olds (Study 2). In both age groups, participants’ pupillary responses were consistent with analog mental rotation and were correlated with explicit mental rotation performance. Gender differences in pupillary responses were present at both time points, yet a male advantage in explicit performance was only found in adults. Study 3 further characterized the development of analog mental rotation by examining infants’ performance on an implicit change-detection task. Infants’ visual preferences were consistent with analog processes, but did not vary by gender. Together, these results suggest that analog mental rotation processes, as assessed via implicit mental rotation tasks, exhibit moderate developmental continuity between early childhood and adulthood, but gender differences in performance may undergo notable change across this period of development. 

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction, 1

Paper 1, 8

Abstract, 9

Introduction, 10

Study 1, 21

Method, 24

Results, 25

Summary and Discussion, 27

Study 2, 27

Method, 29

Results, 33

Summary and Discussion, 37

General Discussion, 38

Paper 2, 42

Abstract, 43

Introduction, 44

Method, 57

Results, 65

Discussion, 70

Gender Discussion, 77

References, 85

Tables, 95

Figures, 103

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Subfield / Discipline	Cognition and Development
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Experimental
Keyword	spatial reasoning childhood adulthood development infancy gender differences
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Laura Namy, Society for Research in Child Development Kim Wallen, Emory University Lynne Nygaard, Emory University Patricia Bauer, Emory University
Committee Members	Scott Lilienfeld, Emory University

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