ABSTRACT The development of math reasoning and 3-d mental rotation skills are intertwined. However, it is currently not understood how these cognitive processes develop and interact longitudinally at the within-person level – either within or across genders. In this study, 553 students (52% girls) were assessed from fifth to seventh grades on 3-d mental rotation spatial skills (assessed each fall) and numerical and algebraic math reasoning skills (assessed each spring). Boys outperformed girls on mental rotation tests across all three grades, and on fifth and seventh grade math reasoning tests. Consistent with the literature on between-person comparisons, there was a positive correlation between mental rotation and math reasoning skills in the full sample and for both genders. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model was used to control for these confounding group-level differences in order to isolate within-person associations between earlier and later performance. Initially in fifth grade, math reasoning predicted subsequent sixth grade mental rotation skills. By seventh grade, more advanced mental rotation skills were associated with subsequent math reasoning skills while math reasoning skills were no longer predictive of mental rotation skills. An examination of gender differences revealed that this pattern was driven by boys while girls experienced less within-person change. These findings suggest that boys may initially rely in part on their math reasoning skills to solve 3-d mental rotation tasks. However, as their 3-d mental rotation skills mature, they begin to primarily depend upon these developing spatial skills to solve math reasoning problems rather than the reverse.

中文翻译：

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中学期间 3-D 心理旋转与数学推理技能之间关联的纵向分析：跨性别和性别内部

摘要 数学推理和 3 维心理旋转技能的发展是交织在一起的。然而，目前尚不清楚这些认知过程如何在人的层面上纵向发展和相互作用——无论是在性别内部还是跨性别。在这项研究中，553 名学生（52% 是女生）接受了 3-d 心理旋转空间技能（每年秋季评估）以及数字和代数数学推理技能（每年春季评估）的评估。在所有三个年级的心理旋转测试以及五年级和七年级的数学推理测试中，男孩的表现都优于女孩。与关于人与人之间比较的文献一致，在整个样本中，无论男女，心理轮换和数学推理技能之间都存在正相关。随机截距交叉滞后面板模型用于控制这些混杂的组级差异，以隔离早期和后期表现之间的人内关联。最初在五年级时，数学推理预测了随后六年级的心理旋转技能。到七年级时，更高级的心理旋转技能与随后的数学推理技能相关，而数学推理技能不再能预测心理旋转技能。对性别差异的检查表明，这种模式是由男孩驱动的，而女孩则较少经历人际变化。这些发现表明，男孩最初可能部分依赖于他们的数学推理技能来解决 3 维心理旋转任务。然而，随着他们的 3D 心理旋转技能成熟，