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Abstract
Spatial-Visualization is the ability to identify patterns through pictorial perception. It involves the use of the cognitive non-verbal skills to visualise patterns of various objects. Motor learning is the ability to distinguish patterns in different stimuli. This learning method uses perpetual learning to enhance performance. In this experiment, we aim to investigate the nature of spatial-visual responses in both male and female participants. We also aim to investigate whether male and female participants show different spatial-visual abilities differ. In addition, we are interested in investigating whether stimuli influence spatial-visual perception in motor learning experiment. In this experiment, different stimuli were used for the same task. Our results indicated that male and female have different spatial-visual abilities. The overall conclusion was that spatial-visual abilities are influenced by physiological and psychosocial factors affecting the participants. In addition, stimuli influence the spatial-visual ability of individuals.
Aims
To investigate individual differences in visual-spatial abilities using the mental rotation task.
To investigate the correlation between motor learning and performance.
Introduction
Mental rotation
Spatial-visual is the ability to differentiate patterns holistically. Individuals exemplary in Visual-spatial tasks find it easy to manoeuvre objects using non-verbal cognitive techniques (Dodd & Flowers 2012, p. 69). Research shows that such individuals think in terms of pictures. They visualise things or processes in pictorial format before they employ auditory-sequential perception methods. Spatial-visual talented individuals have interconnected ideas since they process ideas rather in terms of pictures than words (Golon 2008, p. 38).
Research asserts that cognitive recognition of patterns in mental rotation different in different genders. Consequently, mental rotation tasks manifest greater difference when carried out by male and female participants. Experiments have proven that males have higher cognitive sensitivity as compared to that of females. In addition, research asserts that this difference is significant for both simple and complex object patterns. Males’ pattern recognition is attributed to high accuracy when identifying patterns. Males also tend to be manifest high speeds during identification compared to their female counterparts. On the other hand, females find it tricky to distinguish objects in different patterns. Therefore, females manifest difficulties in identification of complex patterns. However, researchers assert that females may improve their pattern identification if provided with verbal aids and guidance (Dodd & Flowers 2012, p. 87).
Mental rotation is a sub-set of a spatial-visual learning technique. The rotation task entails identification of targets that form pattern after rotation. Scholars term mental rotation task as technical. Therefore, the task requires quick manoeuvring with the patterns before and after rotation. The participant is required to make a quick decision on the resultant order of the objects. In most cases, the object to be identified is marked and is commonly referred to as Target. The participant identifies the position of this target after rotating the object. It is the accuracy of identification that determines the participant’s spatial-visual ability. Experiments have revealed that male and female participants portray different Spatial-visual abilities. The difference is also contributed by the physiological and psychosocial factors that participants undergo in their lifetime (Brockmole 2009, p. 68).
Physiological factors influence the ability to perform accurate mental rotation. Researchers assert that mental rotation requires high skills for accuracy. In addition, the mental state of the participants may affect the accuracy of the pattern recognition. Consequently, the hormonal differences between males and females are the main reason for different pattern recognition ability. Psychosocial factors are the experiences that participants have gone through in their life. Research provides that involvement in particular events in the past influences the participant’s ability to recognize patterns. Scholars argue that life experiences and cultural roles of females and men differ in most family and cultural settings. This leads to different learning environments for males and females. This explains why females and males exhibit different abilities in spatial and motor learning experiments (Lathrop 2008, p. 123).
Motor learning
Motor learning is the technique of acquiring learning through transfer from one stimulus to another. Therefore, motor learning experiments employ the use of this principle to evaluate learning in an individual (Brockmole 2009, p. 76). For instance, the participants of motor learning experiment may their left hand to test what they had previously tested using their right hand. Spatial-visual learning involves learning through identification of correlation that existed between the two body parts. On the other hand, motor learning uses mirror drawing for examination. The process assumes that since mirroring is instant, the participants should identify the images as quickly as possible. Therefore, this experiment used mirror-drawing test involving test in the laboratory. Furthermore, the participant was supposed to record the time taken to identify the mirroring in milliseconds (Redding & Wallace 2013, p. 100).
Methodology
Materials
Mental rotation
Cog Lab software was installed in a lab computer.
Motor rotation
Sharp pencils, five star sheets per participants, an adhesive tape, stopwatches, mirrors, cardboard shields, retort stands, and plasticine. In addition, each participant had access to Edinburgh inventory, which was used to measure handedness.
Methods
Mental rotation
After launching Cog Lab software, we selected Mental Rotation from image Column and pressed Enter key. Instructions indicating that in case of different objects, “z” was the response appeared. The instruction also stated that in case of similar objects, “/” or “?” there would be the response. We pressed the spacebar to start the experiment, as well as whenever we wanted to move from one trial to the next. We then pressed “z” key when objects appeared as mirror images regardless of whether the images were with or without rotation.
Alternatively, we pressed the “/” key whenever the objects were similar with or without rotation. Throughout the experiment, we were careful to respond as accurately as possible rather than quickly. This was important for this experiment since Cog lab software responded to both accurate and inaccurate entries. Furthermore, the experiment was susceptible to errors especially if we pressed any key without mental rotation.
Motor learning
Each trial entailed use observation of two 3-D blocks. The participants were supposed to identify either identical or mirror image of each other. After identification, the participant had to rotate the shapes clockwise in the interval of 20 degrees. Therefore, the rotation was in order 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, and 180 degrees with respect to the direction of the other shape. For each rotation, the participant was to identify whether the shapes were same or different. The participant was supposed to respond as quickly as they could since the response time was being recorded. It was possible that the participant made the mistake, for instance, claiming that the stimuli were similar when actually they were different. In that case, the trial was automatically repeated another time during the experiment. During the repeat, the trial was carried out using a different stimulus.
Results
Mental rotation
Table 1: mental rotation results.
Motor learning
Table 2: Motor learning results.
Data summary
Table 3: Summary of the motor learning results.
Mental rotation graph
Discussion
Mental rotation
Table 1 above provides the results for mental rotation experiment that involved both males and females. The table shows two sets of experiments done by each gender group. Both genders did the experiment with similar intervals to make comparison easier. From the results, it is clear that the two genders show great differences in the ability to perform mental rotation recognition.
The results prove that females are better in identifying patterns of objects than males. For instance, in set one when the object was not rotated (0 degrees), female participant took 1482 ms to identify the pattern. On the other hand, the male participant took 1875ms to respond. This shows that the female participant was quicker than the male participant in pattern recognition. However, the male participant recorded less time in the second attempt. This indicates that the male participant had learnt from experience on how to perform pattern recognition. The male recorded 1254.4 as opposed to 3154.2 for the female at an angle of 0 degrees.
The female participant showed better performance in identifying rotated patterns than the male participants. For instance, in set one, the female-recorded 3943.8 compared to 6274.2 for the male for the same shape. The same participants recorded 3015.8 and 530.6 when the patterns involved different shapes for the female and male participant respectively. The two sets were compared at a rotation angle of 120 degrees. From this, it is evident that the female participant easily identified both simple and complex patterns better than the male participant did.
I was not expecting such results since theoretically, males perform better than females in pattern recognition. For instance, I expected male to do better in recognizing different shapes rotated at 120 degrees than the female participant. This difference might have been caused by favourable psychosocial and physiological environment, which the female participant might have experienced in the past.
Motor learning
Perpetual Motor learning was the pathway applied in this motor learning experiment. Perpetual learning states that different stimuli influences performance of the individual differently (Golon 2008, p. 126). In addition, perpetual learning improves performance of the participants over time. Scholars assert that this is possible since perpetual learning involves both physical and cognitive skills to implement the task. Therefore, repetition of the task would lead to a better understanding of the over time (Lathrop 2008, p. 138). Table 2 shows attempts we used involving similar and different stimuli. Figure 1 shows the graphical trend demonstrating plots of same and different stimuli. The graph shows that the response time reduced as we repeated the experiment. Therefore, this task requires both cognitive and physical skills to carry out motor learning experiment.
The graph shows that we obtained consistent reduction in response time for different shapes in different stimuli. This is true since figure 1 shows that the response time reduced consistently before rising and settling later. On the other hand, identification of the same shape in different stimuli shows inconsistency. The figure shows sharp trends with the adjacent trials showing different response time. Therefore, it is easier perpetual knowledge works better when the pattern is moved from one stimulus to another.
Conclusion
In summary, spatial-visual and motor learning tasks require cognitive and physical skills. There exists gender difference in implementation of the above task. Generally, males show better response to spatial-visual and motor learning tasks. However, sometimes this fact can reverse whereby female participants show better results than their male counterparts do. If the female has experience in the task that involves similar approaches with the target experimental tasks than she acts a bit better. Consequently, physiological factors and psychosocial factors highly influence spatial-visual and motor learning capabilities.
References
Brockmole, J 2009, The visual world in memory, Psychology Press, Hove, England.
Dodd, M & Flowers, J 2012, The Influence of Attention, Learning, and Motivation on Visual Search, Springer, Dordrecht.
Golon, A 2008, Visual-spatial learners: differentiation strategies for creating a successful classroom, Prufrock Press, Waco, Tex.
Lathrop, S 2008, Extending cognitive architectures with spatial and visual imagery mechanisms, University of California, Irvine California.
Redding, G & Wallace, B 2013, Adaptive Spatial Alignment, Taylor and Francis, Hoboken.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
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