Photographs of real human figures: Item types and persistent sex differences in mental rotation

The goal of the current study was to provide a better understanding of the role of image familiarity, embodied cognition, and cognitive strategies on sex differences in performance when rotating blocks and photographs of real human bodies. Two new Mental Rotation Tests (MRTs) were created: one using photographs of real human models positioned as closely as possible to computer drawn figures from the human figures MRT used in Doyle and Voyer’s 2013 study, and one using analogous block figures. It was hypothesised that, when compared to the analogous block figures, the real human figures would lead to improved accuracy among both men and women, a reduced magnitude of sex differences in accuracy, and a reduced effect of occlusion on women’s performance when compared to analogous block figures. The three-way interaction between test, sex, and occlusion reported in Doyle and Voyer’s 2013 study was not replicated in the current study. However, women’s scores on the real human figures improved significantly more than men’s scores on the real human figures test compared to gender differences in improvement on the block figures test. This finding points to a greater strategy shift among women than men when rotating human figures.