Approaching behavior reduces gender differences in the mental rotation performance.

In this study, we investigated if the enactment of an approaching or avoiding behavior influences the mental rotation performance. Thirty-five females and thirty males completed a chronometric mental rotation task either in an approaching or in an avoiding condition while manipulating their arm position. The results showed a significant influence of this embodied behavior dependent on gender and task difficulty. The approaching condition caused no gender difference in reaction times and a reduced gender difference in accuracy for the most difficult tasks, while the avoidance condition produced the well-known gender differences in mental rotation for both reaction time and accuracy. We demonstrate that an approaching behavior improves the visual-spatial performance of females and gives a hint that the role of motivation must be investigated in more detail in further research.