These findings, paired with those of Moore and Johnson (2008, 2011) that provide evidence of a sex difference in mental rotation ability in 3- to 5-month-olds, show that the

difference can be demonstrated at multiple age groups during infancy. It is manifested as early as 3 months of age and as late as 9–10 months of age. Possible biological determinants of mental rotation ability, such as hormonal influences and cerebral lateralization, have been linked to performance on mental rotation tasks, but with mixed outcomes (e.g., Hausmann, Slabbekoorn, Van-Goozen, Cohen-Kettenis, & Gunturkun, 2000; Hines, 2004; Liben et al., 2002; Puts, McDaniel, Jordan, & Breedlove, 2008; Roberts & Bell, 2003; Unterrainer, Wranek, Staffen, Gruber, & Ladurner, 2000). There are also studies suggesting that experiential factors may contribute to mental rotation ability Selleckchem Ganetespib in infants. For example, Schwarzer and colleagues (Schwarzer, Freitag, Buckel, & Lofruthe, 2013; Schwarzer, Freitag, & Schum, 2013) have reported that for click here 9-month-olds, performance on a mental rotation task was most difficult for those infants who were not yet crawling and who did not spontaneously explore objects. Similarly, Möhring and Frick (2013) have reported that prior experience handling an object facilitated the ability of 6-month-olds to perform successfully in a

violation-of-expectation analogue of a mental rotation task involving that object. However, sex differences in mental rotation ability were not present in either the Schwarzer et al. or Möhring and Frick studies. It is unclear to us why some experimental methods have revealed sex differences Casein kinase 1 in performance, and others have not. The current study employed presentation of a series

of static, two-dimensional stimuli rather than videos of two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional blocks or events involving three-dimensional objects. There is one study conducted with children that observed a sex difference in mental rotation favoring males with two-dimensional animal drawings or letters, but not with two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional cubes (Jansen, Schmelter, Quaiser-Pohl, Neuburger, & Heil, 2013), and another study conducted with adults that did not observe a sex difference in mental rotation with three-dimensional objects (McWilliams, Hamilton, & Muncer, 1997). However, as noted earlier, Moore and Johnson (2008, 2011) have reported a sex difference in mental rotation in infants with two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects, Shepard and Cooper (1982) found no difference in reaction time between two- and three-dimensional mental rotation, and meta-analytic studies have suggested that the sex difference in three-dimensional rotation performance is generally larger than the sex difference for two-dimensional rotation performance (Linn & Petersen, 1985; Voyer et al., 1995).