Cognitive subprocesses of mental rotation: Why is a good rotator better than a poor one

The Vanderberg-Kuse Mental Rotation Test is a standard test of mental rotat ion ability. Recent experiments have demonstrated that mental rotation is a complex cognitive process wherein different subprocesses (focused attentio n, visual scanning, perceptual decision, visual memory) play important role s in performance. We classified the population as good and poor rotators by performance of mental rotation (ns=47: 22 men and 25 women, respectively; mean age: 20.7 yr.). To examine differences cognitive Subprocesses of menta l rotation of these two groups were compared. There were significant differ ences between poor and good rotators in performance on Raven's test and the Pieron Focused Attention test scores. The good rotators scored better beca use their perceptual decision-analytical intelligence (Raven) and focused a ttention scores were higher.