Mental rotation performance: Age, sex, and visual field differences

Abstract

Eighteen young (17–23 years) and 18 older (66–79 years) adults performed a mental rotation task under lateralized viewing conditions to compare the generalized versus right hemisphere decline hypothesis of neuropsychological aging. Although older adults exhibited slower reaction times and less accuracy than younger adults, visual field patterns were independent of age and sex. There was no evidence to indicate a selective decline with age in left hemisphere or right hemisphere processing ability during mental rotation performance. These results support the hypothesis that hemispheric changes in processing with age are not selective but are generalized across both hemispheres.