Can girls think spatially? Influence of implicit gender stereotype activation and rotational axis on fourth graders' mental-rotation performance

Mental-rotation tasks usually induce large gender differences in favor of males. The influence of task features and stereotype activation on the mental-rotation performance of elementary-school children has rarely been investigated. This study examined the performance of 272 fourth-grade boys and girls in a psychometric mental-rotation task varying implicit gender-stereotype activation (threatening vs. non-threatening task framing) and rotational axis (picture-plane vs. in-depth rotations). Children's gender stereotypes were assessed by a questionnaire. Both genders showed a male stereotype for mental rotation. Implicit gender stereotype activation influenced the gender difference only in picture-plane mental-rotation tasks. Boys outperformed girls in the threatening condition, but not in the non-threatening condition, here. However, in-depth rotation tasks induced a significant male advantage in both the threatening and the non-threatening conditions. Findings suggest that a task framing relating mental rotation to arts induces a stereotype-lift effect and that the rotational axis moderates the effect of implicit gender-stereotype activation.