Gender differences in mental rotation strategy depend on degree of autistic traits
Published online on May 04, 2018
Abstract
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Participants with low, medium, and high autistic traits completed a mental rotation task while their eye movements were recorded. Men were more accurate than women (F(1, 102) = 4.36, P = 0.04, η2p = 0.04), but there were no group differences in reaction time. In terms of eye movements, all participants tended to rely on top corners of cube figures for most angles of rotation, and bottom corners of cube figures for 0 and 90 degree rotations (duration: F(8, 816) = 21.70, P < 0.001, η2p = 0.18; count: F(8, 816) = 24.42, P < 0.001, η2p = 0.19) suggesting a shift in strategy with rotation angle. Eye movements to corners of cube figures also varied by autistic traits group and gender (duration: F(4, 204) = 2.44, P = 0.05, η2p = 0.05; count: F(4, 204) = 2.47, P = 0.05, η2p = 0.05). Participants with low and medium autistic traits tended to rely more often on the top corners, whereas women with high autistic traits relied on both the top and bottom corners and men with high autistic traits relied on all corners equally. These results suggest mental rotation strategies may vary by both gender and autistic traits. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1024–1037. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Lay Summary
The current study looked at eye movements to assess adults' strategies when mentally rotating three‐dimensional cube figures. Adults with varying levels of autistic traits differ in their mental rotation strategies. In addition, gender differences in strategies are observed in adults with the highest level of autistic traits.
- Autism Research, Volume 11, Issue 7, Page 1024-1037, July 2018.