Effects of Age and Sex in Mental Rotation and Spatial Learning from Virtual Environments

The study examined the age and sex effects in spatial learning and mental rotation in 58 adults. We developed two new spatial learning tasks using virtual reality (VR): a navigation task and a pointing task. The results show that younger adults outperformed older adults in both virtual tasks but not in mental rotation. Males outperformed females in the navigation task and mental rotation. We conclude that age generally drives differences in spatial learning, and that sex drives differences in spatial abilities, which were especially related to ability in navigating through virtual environments.