Poster #5 - The difference in neural activity of young children's mental rotation between 2D and 3D.

• In Event: Poster Session 16

Abstract

Spatial ability is important for children to explore and adapt to the environment. Mental rotation is one of spatial ability. In the past, few studies compared the differences between children's mental rotation with 2D- and 3D- objects from a neuroscience perspective. Studies have shown that 2D and 3D recognition might induce P1’s and N400’s amplitude. P1 is modulated by the perception of figures in depth. N400 is thought to relate to reasoning and information integration. Therefore, this study aims to investigate children's 2D and 3D mental rotation ability from a neuroscience perspective by both behavior response and event-related potential (ERP) of EEG signals.

There were one hundred and eighteen kindergarten and first-grade participants in this study. In the behavioral experiment, seventy-one children were tested. There were 37 kindergarteners (18 males and 19 females, M=74.2months) and 34 first-grade students ( 18 males and 16 females, M=86.7 months). Each child completed the mental rotation task of 2D and 3D conditions. Children were asked to judge whether the two stimuli were the same or mirrored pair by mentally rotating. The stimuli were rotated by 0∘, 100∘, and 150∘. In the ERP experiment, forty-seven children were tested. There were 25 kindergarteners (13 males and 12 females, M=75.6 months) and 22 first-grade students(11 males and 11 females, M=89.8 months). The procedure of the ERP experiment is the same as the behavioral experiment.

Behavioral results revealed that the main effect of age was significant. The first-grade students performed better than kindergarteners in both 2D and 3D conditions. The accuracy of the 2D condition was significantly higher than that of the 3D condition. The sequence of accuracy from high to low is 0∘,100∘, and 150∘conditions.
The effects of task, angle, and age on P1 at Oz / N400 at Fz with a three-factor mixed design ANOVA were analyzed. The ERP results revealed that the main effect of age was not significant. The P1 amplitude was significantly greater in the 3D condition than in the 2D condition. It is inferred that the 3D condition may have a depth dimension than the 2D condition. The P1 amplitude was significantly greater in the 0∘ condition than in the 150∘ condition. The N400 amplitude was significantly greater in the 3D condition than in the 2D condition. The results may illustrate that 3D condition requires more cognitive resources. The N400 amplitude was significantly greater in the 150∘ condition than in the 0∘ condition.

In conclusion, from the neuroscience perspective, there was a similar information processing for mental rotation with 2D- and 3D-shape objects for different ages children. Therefore, the difference between the kindergarten and first-grade children’s behavioral performance would be influenced by task difficulty.


Keywords: mental rotation, 2D, 3D, ERP

Authors

• Tzu-Hsuan Hsu, National Tsing Hua University
  Presenting Author

• Chia-Hui Chiu, University of Taipei

• Peter Kuan-Hao Cheng, National Tsing Hua University

• Jung-Tai King, Institute of Neuroscience , National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University