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Mental Rotation Task for Children - Mouse

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 10, 2015

Last Modified: January 07, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements a Mental Rotation Test and Training Module for children. The input device for this script is the mouse.

The implemented procedure is based on:

Wiedenbauer, G. & Jansen-Osmann, P. (2008). Manual training of mental rotation in children. Learning and Instruction, 18, 30-41.

Duration

7 minutes

Description

For pre-posttest participants are presented 2 pictures of the same animal: on the left, participants see the animal with a 0° rotation (the base stimulus) and on the right, participants see a rotated animal (8 different rotation angles: 20°, 60°, 120°, 160°; clock and counterclockwise). The rotated pic is either derived from the base stimulus or it is derived from the mirror image of the base. Participants are asked to press a green button if the animals are the same and a red button if they are different.

3 phases: 1. pretest 2. Training Module: Participant are asked to use the mouse to rotate the comparison images 3. Posttest

Procedure

Practice
- trials start with the presentation of a homebutton on the button of the screen that needs to be clicked
(the homebutton ensures that the mouse is returned to a neutral place at the start of each trial).
- 24 trials = 2 animals * 6 rotation angles * 2 presentations (one with same comparison animal, the other with mirror comparison animal)
the animals presented during practice are not used for any test condition
- 2 pictures of the same animal presented for each trial: left is the base (0° rotation); on the right is the rotated comparison stimuli
- 6 rotation angles: 15°, 90°, 165° degrees clockwise and counterclockwise
( Wiedenbauer & Jansen-Osmann, 2008, don't specify the number of animals nor the practice angles used)
- half the base animals look to the left, the other to the right
- half the trials are 'same' trials (the other half present the mirror image as the comparison animal)
- random sampling without replacement
- positive and negative feedback is given by smiley/frowny faces

Pretest
- trials start with the presentation of a homebutton on the button of the screen that needs to be clicked
(the homebutton ensures that the mouse is returned to a neutral place at the start of each trial).
A fixation cross is then presented for 500ms (editable value) followed by:
- 96 trials= 6 animals * 8 angles * 2 presentations (one with same comparison animal, the other with mirror comparison animal)
- 2 pictures of the same animal presented for each trial: left is the base (0° rotation); on the right is the rotated comparison stimuli
- 8 rotation angles: 22.5°, 67.5°, 112.5°, 157.5° (clock and counterclockwise); change under section Editable Parameters
- half the bases look to the left, the other to the right
- half the trials are 'same' trials (the other half present the mirror image as the comp animal)
- random sampling without replacement
• no feedback

Training
- one demo trial
- 192 trials = 12 animals (different from pretest) * 8 angles (same as for pretest) * 2 repetitions
- 2 pictures of the same animal presented for each trial: left is the base (0° rotation); on the right is the rotated comparison stimuli
- 8 rotation angles: 22.5°, 67.5°, 112.5°, 157.5° (clock and counterclockwise); change under section Editable Parameters
- participants can rotate the comparison stimuli clock and counterclockwise by mouse rotation
=> the script matches the current mouse coordinates to one of 12 rotation degrees. Thus, slight differences in mouse
coordinates may not always lead to a change in rotation
- if comparison stimuli look like the base, participants are asked to press the right mouse key
- feedback is provided

Posttest
- trials start with the presentation of a homebutton on the button of the screen that needs to be clicked
(the homebutton ensures that the mouse is returned to a neutral place at the start of each trial).
- 192 trials= 12 animals * 8 angles * 2 presentations (one with same comparison animal, the other with mirror comparison animal)
- 2 pictures of the same animal presented for each trial: left is the base (0° rotation); on the right is the rotated comparison stimuli
- 8 rotation angles: 22.5°, 67.5°, 112.5°, 157.5° (clock and counterclockwise); change under section Editable Parameters
- half the bases look to the left, the other to the right
- half the trials are 'same' trials (the other half present the mirror image as the comparison animal)
- random sampling without replacement
- no feedback
- 6 of the animals presented for the posttest are also used during training; the remaining 6 are new

! assignment of 24 animals to pretest, training, posttest
In this script, the 24 animals are randomly assigned to pretest (6), training (12), posttest (12) by default.
Posttest and training share 6 animals. The assignment is therefore different for each participant.
Wiedenbauer & Jansen-Osmann (2008) used the following predetermined assignment
A. pretest: elephant; fox; alligator; cow; leopard; horse.
B. rotation training: bear; donkey; dog; pig; tiger; goat; monkey; bunny; cat; mouse; turtle; sea lion.
C. posttest: bear; donkey; dog; pig; tiger; goat; camel; lion; rhinoceros; deer; sheep; racoon.

To use this predetermined assignment, go to EDITABLE CODE -> Editable Lists -> list.assignAnimals
and follow instructions.

Stimuli

Stimuli are animals from the 'Snodgrass and Vanderwart 'Like' Objects' introduced by

Rossion, B., & Pourtois, G. (2004). Revisiting Snodgrass and Vanderwart's object set:
The role of surface detail in basic-level object recognition. Perception, 33, 217-236.

The complete stimuli set can be downloaded at:
https://wiki.cnbc.cmu.edu/Objects
( original link published in Rossion & Pourtois (2004) does not work as of Feb 2015)

2 Practice Stimuli: fish, frog
24 pretest Stimuli (6 randomly selected for the pretest)
alligator, bear, bunny, camel, cat, cow, deer, dog, donkey, elephant, fox, goat, horse
leopard, lion, monkey, mouse, pig, racoon, rhino, sealion, sheep, tiger, turtle

Instructions

The instructions used in this script are not original to Wiedenbauer & Jansen-Osmann (2008)
Instructions are presented htm files.

Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond
as htm/html pages and can be edited by changing the provided htm/html files.
To edit htm/html-files: open the respective documents in simple Text Editors such as TextEdit (Mac)
or Notepad (Windows).

Summary Data

File Name: mentalrotationtraining_children_mouse_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
propCorrectOverall Overall proportion correct (across all pretest/posttest trials)
meanCorrRTOverall Overall mean response time of correct responses (across all pretest/posttest trials)
Main Effect: Sameness
propCorrectSame Proportion correct for all Same trials (across all angles)
meanCorrRTSame Mean response time of correct responses to Same trials (across all angles)
propCorrectMirror Proportion correct for all Mirror trials (across all angles)
meanCorrRTMirror Mean response time of correct responses to Mirror trials (across all angles)
Main Effect: Angle
propCorrectAngle1 Proportion correct for all angle1 (here: 22.5deg) (across same/mirror trials)
meanCorrRTAngle1 Mean response time of correct responses to all angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials)
propCorrectAngle2 Proportion correct for all angle2 (here: 67.5deg) (across same/mirror trials)
meanCorrRTAngle2 Mean response time of correct responses to all angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials)
propCorrectAngle3 Proportion correct for all angle3 (here: 112.5deg) (across same/mirror trials)
meanCorrRTAngle3 Mean response time of correct responses to all angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials)
propCorrectAngle4 Proportion correct for all angle1 (here: 157.5.5deg) (across same/mirror trials)
meanCorrRTAngle4 Mean response time of correct responses to all angle1 (here: 157.5deg) trials (across same/mirror trials)
Interaction: Sameness X Angle
propCorrectSameAngle1 Proportion correct for all same Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTSameAngle1 Mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials
propCorrectSameAngle2 Proportion correct for all same Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTSameAngle2 Mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials
propCorrectSameAngle3 Proportion correct for all same Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTSameAngle3 Mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials
propCorrectSameAngle4 Proportion correct for all same Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTSameAngle4 Mean response time of correct responses to all same Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials
propCorrectMirrorAngle1 Proportion correct for all Mirror Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTMirrorAngle1 Mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle1 (here: 22.5deg) trials
propCorrectMirrorAngle2 Proportion correct for all Mirror Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTMirrorAngle2 Mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle2 (here: 67.5deg) trials
propCorrectMirrorAngle3 Proportion correct for all Mirror Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTMirrorAngle3 Mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle3 (here: 112.5deg) trials
propCorrectMirrorAngle4 Proportion correct for all Mirror Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials
meanCorrRTMirrorAngle4 Mean response time of correct responses to all Mirror Angle4 (here: 157.5deg) trials
training
propCorrectTraining Proportion correct Training performance

Raw Data

File Name: mentalrotationtraining_children_mouse_raw*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
build Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
blockCode Name of the current block
blockNum Number of the current block
trialCode Name of the current trial
trialNum Number of the current trial
baseItemNumber Stores the current base animal item number being tested
(1 = bear....24 = turtle, in alphabetical order)
compItemNumber Stores the current comp animal item number
Note
if Sameness = 1 then the comp item number should equal the base itemnumber
if Sameness = 2 then the comp item number be different from the base itemnumber
direction 1 = base looks left
2 = base looks right
angle Stores the current rotation angle being tested
sameness 1 = comp is the same as base
2 = comp is mirror image of base(looks in opposite direction)
stimulusItem.1 The image presented as the base
stimulusItem.2 The image presented as the comp
rotation is done on the comp image during runtime; no need for a different image file
response The participant's key response (selected response button)
pre/posttest
greenbutton_mouse (identical)
redButtonMouse (mirror)
training
mousemove, lButtonDown, rButtonDown (indicates being done with rotation)
responseCategory Pretest/posttest
1 = same
2 = mirror
training
"rotate"
"end rotation"
correct The accuracy of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect)
latency The response latency (in ms); measured from onset of stimuli
preTest1-preTest6 The itemnumbers of the 6 pretest animals
training1-training12 The itemnumbers of the 12 training animals
posttest1-posttest12 The itemnumbers of the 12 posttest animals

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
fontSizeFixation Fontsize of the fixation mark in screen height percentages 15%
readyDuration Duration (in ms) of the get-ready-trial 5000ms
fixationDuration Presentation duration (in ms) of the fixation stimulus
Image Angles (used clock and counterclockwise)		500ms
rotationAngle1 The smallest rotation angle (here: 22.5deg)
rotationAngle2 The second smallest rotation angle (here: 67.5deg)
rotationAngle3 The second largest rotation angle (here: 112.5deg)
rotationAngle4 The largest rotation angle (here: 157.5deg)
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