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Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research 6/2017

15-10-2016 | Original Article

Approaching behavior reduces gender differences in the mental rotation performance

Auteurs: Petra Jansen, Sandra Kaltner, Daniel Memmert

Gepubliceerd in: Psychological Research | Uitgave 6/2017

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Abstract

In this study, we investigated if the enactment of an approaching or avoiding behavior influences the mental rotation performance. Thirty-five females and thirty males completed a chronometric mental rotation task either in an approaching or in an avoiding condition while manipulating their arm position. The results showed a significant influence of this embodied behavior dependent on gender and task difficulty. The approaching condition caused no gender difference in reaction times and a reduced gender difference in accuracy for the most difficult tasks, while the avoidance condition produced the well-known gender differences in mental rotation for both reaction time and accuracy. We demonstrate that an approaching behavior improves the visual-spatial performance of females and gives a hint that the role of motivation must be investigated in more detail in further research.
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Metagegevens
Titel
Approaching behavior reduces gender differences in the mental rotation performance
Auteurs
Petra Jansen
Sandra Kaltner
Daniel Memmert
Publicatiedatum
15-10-2016
Uitgeverij
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Gepubliceerd in
Psychological Research / Uitgave 6/2017
Print ISSN: 0340-0727
Elektronisch ISSN: 1430-2772
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-016-0817-7

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