Executive Function and Mental Rotation During Middle Childhood: The Effect of Age

Abstract

The authors examined the relative contributions of three aspects of executive function with two-dimensional (2D) mental rotation in children between 8 and 12 years old. Participants were given one standard 2D mental rotation measure, two working memory tasks (Corsi blocks and digit span), two inhibitory control tasks (Stroop and go/no go), and two planning ability tests (Tower of Hanoi and Tower of London). The correlational patterns between executive function and 2D mental rotation were different depending on age. More inhibitory control in younger children was associated with better performance in mental rotation, but not in older children. These results add to the understanding of the specific nature of children’s executive function-mental rotation relations.

Keywords:

• Executive function
• mental rotation
• middle childhood
• age

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bing-Hua Li

Zhong-Hua He is an associate professor in School of Public Health at Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine. Her research interests focus on the development of cognitive ability, specifically executive function in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

Wen-Gang Yin

Wen-Gang Yin is a researcher at Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He specializes in neuropsychological development and its mechanism of children and adult.