Many studies have documented age-related decline of mental rotation abilities (e.g. Berg, Hertzog, and Hunt, 1982; and Hertzog, Vernon, and Rypma, 1993). None have attempted to design a training program to improve older adults’ mental rotation performance. This study’s focus was development of a program to benefit adults in mentally rotating block figures. Support training (environmental support or practice), and variability training (high or low) effects were tested. Environmental support provided colored “cue” blocks and allowed participants to manually rotate the figures. High and low variability varied in number of distinct rotation angles used in training. Effects of figure complexity were assessed by varying number of blocks and projections making up the figures.
Fifty-one younger and 45 older adults completed a pretest, a 120-trial training session, and then a posttest. Both age groups improved accuracy and latency scores on the posttest, although environmental support training and variability training did not strongly influence scores. Little research has explored older adults’ mental rotation abilities on rotations over 180 degrees. While older adults’ latency never reached the same level as younger adults, their ability to accurately rotate figures over angles greater than 180 degrees improved more than younger adults’ from pretest to posttest.
This study provided evidence that environmental support and high variability training may have helped older adults under some specific circumstances. It is apparent that more research is needed to develop effective mental rotation training that will work better than practice alone, especially for older adults