Exploring the relation between non-spatial skills and mental rotation from infancy to preK

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Mental rotation, the ability to mentally manipulate a visual representation of an object and recognize its appearance from a different orientation, shows stability from infancy through preschool. This ability predicts mathematical achievement in kindergarten and beyond as well as entry into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The present work focuses on identifying how non-spatial processes contribute to mental rotation abilities. Findings will help identify ideal time points for intervention, advance understanding of the factors that contribute to mental rotation, and address how individual differences in mental rotation during infancy predict later abilities. This work will involve the creation and refinement of measures that can be used to trace the development of mental rotation from infancy into preschool; thereby, not only contributing new tools to the field, but also yielding insights that can inform current theoretical conceptions of mental rotation and its relation to non-spatial processes. The critical research question is as follows: What are the non-spatial processes that contribute to mental rotation abilities and their development? Associations between mental rotation, object features, processing bias, and motor experience will be examined using a cross-sequential design with overlapping age cohorts. The investigators will recruit an infant cohort at 8 months, a toddler cohort at 20 months, and a preschool cohort at 3 years. Each cohort will be assessed at three time points -- every six months for infants (i.e., 8, 14, and 20 months), every 8 months for toddlers (i.e., 20, 28, and 36 months), and every year for preschoolers (3, 4, and 5 years). When examined at a specific age, the sample will provide a snapshot into the association between mental rotation and non-spatial skills (i.e., object features, processing bias, and motor experience). The longitudinal design will allow the investigators to follow participants across infancy, toddlerhood, or the preschool years. This approach provides an opportunity to understand how non-spatial skills, such as more precocious motor skills during infancy, may shape mental rotation over time. Such findings are central to bolstering understanding of the possible mechanisms by which particular types of experiences can promote infants' mental rotation. This, consequently, has implications for promoting academic achievement and remediating existing discrepancies in spatial and mathematical skills in children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.