Improvement Of Mental Rotation: Evidence From Eye Movement

Mental Rotation is one kind of perception space image operation,is also one kind of spatial representation transformation form and the spatial intelligence.It is trainable and the effectiveness of training may probably have the influence of kinds of organic variables.Looking on the things happen around us that computer games attract juvenile much,it will have much practical significance and social meaning to deeply develop the positive functions of the games and to lead juveniles playing computer games in a much healthier way.Therefore,this research proposed that computer games could be a training method to improve the ability of individual mental rotation,while the effect will be different due to the form of cognitive style and sex.The research is based on SMI iView Hi-Speed eye-tracker,to explore the differences of mental rotation ability between two groups of subjects whether they were received game training or not,and inspect the changes of mental rotation ability in the training subjects before and after the experiment.Totally 42 subjects are from the colleges of psychology,education,mathematics,law and etc in Nanjing Normal University,with the actual effective test for 38.Using pretest-posttest nonequivalent group design,the whole experiment is divided into three stages:pre-test,experimental treatments and post-test.And,pre-test used 2×3×6×2×2 five factors mixed experimental design,sex and computer games level are the between-subject variables, angle,consistency and type are within-subjects variables.On the indicators measured before and after the margin for ANOVA,results showed that:(1)The experimental group and control group have reached significant levels in various indicators.And,the reaction time margin indicates that the difference between two groups is significant in the four kinds of combination situation of consistency and type,but consistence & mirror image and inconsistent & positive image are more than the other two kinds.(2)The reaction time margin indicates that the differences in three levels of games have achieved significant levels.In the positive image & consistence and the mirror image & inconsistence,the margin of the medium computer games level is the largest,the low level is the smallest;in the positive image & inconsistence and the mirror image & consistence,the higher the level,the smaller the margin.(3)The pupil diameter and the fixation times' margin indicate that the gender differences in type,angle,consistent and so on in certain combinations are significant.(4)The results of the fixation duration time,the pupil diameter and saccade amplitude all demonstrated that the field cognitive style's difference is remarkable in certain combination,and the margin of the field independence is larger than the field interdependence.Main conclusion:(1)Better utilizes certain computer game can be helpful to enhance the mental rotation ability in a certain extent.In experiment,no matter whether the two graph types stimulated is consistent,no matter whether the stimulation graph required to distinguish is the positive or the mirror image,the training effect is obvious.(2)The use of computer game training to improve the mental rotation ability should consider the involved people's game level.In the difficult or simple task operation,the middle level of the game is the most effective training;in the middle task operation,the training effect of the low level is the most obvious.(3)During the training process of the game,the sex,the field cognitive style have influence on the improvement of mental rotation ability,in a certain extent the training effect of the field independence subjects is better than the field interdependence subjects.