title: Development of mental transformation abilities.
abstract: Mental representation and transformation of spatial information is often examined with mental rotation (MR) tasks, which require deciding whether a rotated image is the same as or the mirror version of an upright image. Recent research with infants shows early discrimination of objects from mirror-image versions. However, even at the age of 4 years, many children perform at near chance level on more standard measures. Similar age discrepancies can be observed in other domains, including perspective taking, theory of mind, and intuitive physics. These paradoxical results raise the questions of how performance relates to competence and how to conceptualize developmental change. There may be a common underlying mechanism: the development of the ability to imagine things and mentally transform them in a prospective fashion.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Fabrikstraße 8, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: depsy@gmx.net.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Frick
authors: Department of Psychology, Temple University, Weiss Hall 318, 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122-6085, USA.
authors: Wenke
authors: W
authors: Möhring
authors: Department of Psychology, Temple University, Weiss Hall 318, 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122-6085, USA.
authors: Nora S
authors: NS
authors: Newcombe
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D007223:Infant; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: cognitive development; intuitive physics; mental rotation; perspective taking; simulation; theory of mind