Mental rotation and diagrammatic reasoning in science

This article presents 3 studies that examine how students and experts employ mental rotation and a learned heuristic to solve chemistry tasks that involve spatial information. Results from Study 1 indicate that despite instruction in analytical strategies, students choose to employ mental rotation on canonical assessment tasks. In Study 2, experts were observed to selectively employ analytical strategies for the same tasks. In Study 3, students who used mental rotation were trained to use analytical strategies with equal success. Collectively, the 3 studies address the affordances of alternative strategies in science and the potential role of each in the classroom.