Mental rotational ability is correlated with spatial but not verbal working memory performance and P300 amplitude in males
Date
2013
Authors
Christie, Gregory J.
Cook, Charles M.
Ward, Brian J.
Tata, Matthew S.
Sutherland, Janice
Sutherland, Robert J.
Saucier, Deborah M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
This study investigated how both sex and individual differences in a mental rotation test (MRT) influence performance on
working memory (WM). To identify the neural substrate supporting these differences, brain electrical activity was measured
using the event-related potential technique. No significant sex differences were observed in a test of verbal WM, however
males were significantly faster than females to respond to probe stimuli in a test of spatial WM. This difference was no
longer significant after controlling for differences in MRT score, suggesting that rotational ability mediates performance in
the spatial memory task for both sexes. A posterior P300 was observed in both tasks as participants encoded information
into memory, however the amplitude of the P300 correlated with RT in the spatial task but not in the verbal task. Individual
differences in the MRT also correlated with RT and with the amplitude of the P300, but again only in the spatial task. After
splitting the analysis by sex, partial correlations controlling for MRT revealed that for males, individual differences in
rotational ability completely mediated the correlation between the P300 and RT in the spatial task. This mediating effect
was not observed for the female participants. The results therefore suggest a relatively stronger association in males
between innate mental rotational ability, spatial memory performance, and brain electrophysiological processes supporting
spatial memory.
Description
Sherpa Romeo green journal: open access
Keywords
Working memory , Short-term memory , Spatial memory , Mental rotation test , Sex differences , Mental rotation ability , P300
Citation
Christie, G. J., Cook, C. M., Ward, B. J., Tata, M. S., Sutherland, J., Sutherland, R. J., & Saucier, D. M. (2013). Mental rotational ability is correlated with spatial but not verbal working memory performance and P300 amplitude in males. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e57390. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057390