The Relation Between Motor Development and ...

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The Relation Between Motor Development and Mental Rotation Ability in 5- to 6-Year-old Children Petra Jansen and Martin Heil This study investigated the relation between motor development, intelligence and mental rotation ability in 5 to 6-year-old children. 80 children performed a standardized motor test (MOT 4-6), a paper-pencil mental rotation test (BIRT) and a non-verbal reasoning test (CPM). A multiple regression analysis revealed that intelligence and motor control abilities were significant and independent predictors of mental rotation performance. Keywords: motor behavior, spatial performance, mental rotation, children

In recent developmental research, activity dependent multi-modal experience was postulated as a core mechanism creating developmental change (Sheya & Smith, submitted). In psychological research, the relation between motor development and cognitive development was investigated in some detail in infancy (i.e. Lange-Küttner & Crichton, 1999; Smith, Thelen, Titzer, & McLin, 1999) but not yet in (pre)school-aged children. In sport science, meta-analyses examined the relationship between motor abilities and cognitive performance (Etnier, Nowell, Landers, & Sibley, 2006; Etnier, Salazar, Landers, Petruzzello, Han, & Nowell, 1997) and revealed a positive correlation even though the results are inconsistent and mostly restricted to adults. Beside this, a more specific assumption (e.g., Diamond, 2007) reads that motor development and movement experience are relevant factors for cognitive performance, especially for spatial performance. Spatial abilities are composed of visualization, orientation, and mental rotation (Linn & Peterson, 1985). Within these factors, mental rotation, i.e., the ability to imagine how an object would look if rotated away from the orientation in which it is actually presented (Shepard & Metzler, 1971), is an important and well-investigated factor. Studies have shown that children as young as 4 years are able to rotate mentally simple stimulus material (Courbois, 2000) and that this ability develops further during childhood (Lange-Küttner & Green, 2007). As in adults, mental rotation seems to be an automatic process in children (Kail, 1991) and still develops until the adult age (Kail, 1985). Spatial abilities are relevant for problem solving (Geary, Saults, Liu, & Hoard, 2000), mathematics (Hegarty & Kozhevnikov, 1999) and science (i.e. Peters, Chisholm, & Laeng, 1995), but are also indispensable for every day life: to reach for a cup of coffee we have to know the start position of the hand and the target localization of the cup. For that, a strong relationship between the development of motor behavior and spatial cognition in preschool children is a popular and widespread assumption, but empirical support is still quite rare. European Journal of Developmental Science [EJDS]. 2010, Vol. 4, No. 1, 66–74 © Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2010, ISSN 1863-3811

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Until now, only indirect studies have been conducted, e.g. with regard to the effect of a motor training on mental rotation ability in healthy children (Wiedenbauer & JansenOsmann, 2008), in children with spina bifida (Wiedenbauer & Jansen-Osmann, 2007) and in healthy adults (Wiedenbauer, Schmid, & Jansen-Osmann, 2007), or concerning the effect of motor interference on mental rotation in adults (Wohlschläger, 2001). Additional evidence comes from neuroscientific studies, which revealed motor cortex activation during mental rotation (Wraga, Thompson, Alpert, & Kosslyn, 2003) as well as an increasing plasticity after training of juggling (Draganski, Gaser, Busch, Schuierer, Bogdahn, & May, 2004) in exactly that brain area (intraparietal sulcus) which is involved in mental rotation (Jordan, Heinze, Lutz, Kanowski, & Jäncke, 2001). This evidence gives a neuronal hint of the relation between motor processes and mental rotation ability. In the present study we investigate the relation between motor and mental rotation abilities in pre-school children. 80 children aged 5 to 6 years participated in a motor developmental test and solved a mental rotation task as well as a non-verbal test for reasoning. This specific part of intelligence was measured since correlations between mental rotation performance and motor development could potentially by completely explainable by such intelligence differences. Method Participants

80 children (40 boys and 40 girls) aged between 5 and 6 years, without neurological disorders, participated in the study. They were recruited from three preschools with different socio-economic background in the north-western part of Germany. All parents gave written informed consent. Each preschool centre received 100 Euro of gratification for participation. Measurements

The following three different tests were used: the MOT 4-6 (German Motor Development Test for children between 4-6 years; Zimmer & Volkamer, 1987), the BIRT (Picture Mental Rotation Test for preschool-children; Quaiser-Pohl, 2003), and the CPM (Coloured Progressive Matrices-Test; Becker, Schaller, & Schmidtke, 1980). MOT 4-6: Motor development test (Zimmer & Volkamer, 1987). The test includes 7 dimensions set up from 17 items (some of the items are used to calculate the scores of more than one dimension): Body agility and co-ordination ability (putting balls into buckets, winding through a hoop without touching it, jumping jack for 10 s, rolling on the ground around the longitudinal axis in both directions, rotary jump into and out of a hoop), fine motor skills (speeded tapping, grasping a drapery with the toes, collecting strikes bimanually), balance (balancing forward, balancing backward, jumping

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with one leg into a hoop, standing up and sitting down while holding a ball above the head, rotary jump into and out of a hoop), catching (catching a stab, catching a tennis-ring), springiness (jumping over a rope, rotary jump into and out of a hoop), speed of movements (speeded tapping, speeded jumping laterally over a rope, putting balls into buckets) and motor control (darting balls, collecting strikes bimanually). The first item, jumping with both legs into a hoop, was used only for warming up. Split-half reliability of this test reads .80, retest-reliability .85 (Zimmer & Volkamer, 1987). BIRT: Picture Mental Rotation Test (Quaiser-Pohl, 2003). The paper-pencil test includes two practice items and 17 test items. Each item consisted of one standard picture on the left side of the paper (see Figure 1). The picture was repeated three times on the right side of the standard in different orientations (45°, 90°, 135° or 180°). One of the three comparison pictures was identical to the standard on the left side while the other two were mirror-imaged. Children had to decide which one out of the three was the same as the standard and had to mark it. The test was presented without time limit. The maximum score was 17 points. Split-half reliability reads .74 (Quaiser-Pohl, 2003).

Figure 1. An example of the items of the BIRT Mental Rotation Test.

CPM: Coloured Progressive Matrices Test (Becker, Schaller, & Schmidtke, 1980). The CPM Test was designed to measure a child’s ability to form perceptual relations and to reason by analogy independent of language and to measure Spearman’s g. The CPM consists of 36 items arranged in three sets of 12 items each. Each item contains a figure with a missing piece. Below the figure are six alternative pieces to complete the figure, only one of which is correct. Each set involves a different principle or “theme” for obtaining the missing piece, and within a set the items are roughly arranged in increasing order of difficulty. Retest reliability reads .90, internal consistency .64 -.82 (Becker et al., 1980). Procedure

Individual test sessions lasted about 60 minutes and took place in a single and quiet room of the respective preschool. First, each child had to complete the Picture Mental Rotation-Test. Thereafter, motor development was measured by applying the

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MOT 4-6. Finally, each child had to complete the CPM. At the end of the three tests each child received a small award. Design and Statistical analyses

Because of the well-known gender differences in spatial ability (Linn & Peterson, 1986, but compare Jansen-Osmann & Heil, 2007), univariate analyses of variance with factor gender were calculated with the dependent measures of motor development, mental rotation ability and general intelligence. A correlation between mental rotation performance and the seven dimensions of the MOT and the intelligence was calculated. Additionally, two stepwise multiple regressions to predict mental rotation performance were performed. The first one was based on the performance in the CPM, participants’ gender and age in months and the 7 dimensions of the MOT 4-6 test. Since some of the 17 items from the MOT 4-6 are included into more than one dimension of the test, the dimensions are not independent by definition. This is a significant disadvantage of the test. The aforementioned analyses based on the MOT 4-6 dimensions were nevertheless included since it is a widely-used, standardized measure. An additional stepwise multiple regression with mental rotation performance as dependent variable was based on the performance in the CPM, participants’ gender and age in months and the 17 items of the MOT 4-6 test. Results

The univariate analyses of variance with the factor gender did not reveal any significant effect, neither for any of the 7 dimensions of the MOT 4-61, F(1,76) < 2.17, n.s., nor for the BIRT, F(1,76) = 2.597, n.s. or the CPM, F(1,76) = .299, n.s. Mental rotation performance was correlated with intelligence (r = .440) and with certain dimensions of the MOT 4-6, namely with body and co-ordination ability (r = .365), fine motor skills (r = .234), balance (r = .385), springiness (r = .280) and motor control (r = .359). All bivariate correlations are given in Table 1. The high correlations between the three dimensions in the MOT 4-6, i.e. body agility, balance and springiness, might partly be due to the fact that one specific item, rotary jump into and out of a hoop, is included in all three dimensions. The bivariate correlations, however, do not permit us to determine whether or not motor development can predict significant additional variance of mental rotation performance over and above individual differences in intelligence. Therefore, a stepwise multiple regression with mental rotation performance as dependent variable with the following 10 predictors was calculated: performance in the CPM, the 7 dimensions of ¹ Gender differences were also absent at the item level of the MOT 4-6, even for the item “darting

balls”, but see e.g., Watson (2001).

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the MOT 4-6 test, age in months, and gender (see Table 2). The only significant predictors included in the final model were non-verbal intelligence (CPM score) and the MOT 4-6 dimension motor control, R2 = .26, F(2,75) = 13.25, p < .001. Table 1. Bivariate correlations of Mental Rotation, the Seven Dimensions of the MOT and Non-Verbal Intelligence. Body agility

Fine motor Balance Catching Sprinskills giness

Mental rota.365 *** .234 * tion Body agility .120 Fine motor skills Balance Catching Springiness Speed of movement Motor control

Speed of Motor movement control

Intelligence

.155

.359 ***

.440 ***

.385 *** .196

.280 *

.633 *** .321 ** .324 ** .054

.631 *** .381 ** .244 * .439 ***

.222 * .417 ***

.414 *** .022

.661 *** .445 *** .292 ** .255 * .261 *

.338 ** .203 .260 * .074

.345 ** .255 * .302 ** .127

.380 ***

.270 *

Notes: *** signifies p < .001; ** signifies p < .01; * signifies p < .05 Table 2. Final Stepwise Multiple Regression Model for the Mental Rotation Performance (BIRT) Based on the Following Predictors: CPM Performance, Age, Gender plus the 7 MOT 4-6 Dimensions. Predictor CPM Motor Control Balance Body Agility Fine Motor Skills Springiness Speed of Movement Catching Age Gender

β .371 .259 .208 .189 .144 .115 .090 .053 - .044 - .016

T 3.63 2.54 1.95 1.76 1.33 1.10 0.91 0.52 - 0.43 - 0.16

p < .001 < .015 .055 .083 .187 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25

Since some of the 17 items from the MOT 4-6 are included into more than one dimension of the test, the dimensions are not independent. Therefore, an additional stepwise multiple regression with mental rotation performance as dependent variable was calculated with the following 20 predictors: performance in the CPM, the 17 items of the MOT 4-6 test, age in months, and gender (see Table 3). Significant predictors included in the final model were again non-verbal intelligence (CPM score) plus the MOT 4-6 items “collecting strikes bimanually” and “winding through a hoop”, R2 = .39, F(3,74) = 15.84, p < .001.

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Table 3. Final Stepwise Multiple Regression Models for the Mental Rotation Performance (BIRT) Based on the Following Predictors: CPM Performance, Age, gender plus the 17 MOT 4-6 Items. Predictor CPM Collecting Strikes Mimanually Winding Through a Hoop Rolling Around Longitudinal Axis Jumping Laterally Over a Rope Balancing Backwards Standing Up and Sitting Down Jumping Jack Catching a Ring Jumping With One Leg Into a Hoop Rotary Jump Grasping a Drapery with Toes Balancing Forward Jumping Over a Rope Age Tapping Gender Catching a Stab Putting Balls into Buckets Darting Balls

β .470 .289 .193 .124 .113 .099 .097 .069 .062 - .060 .055 .050 .049 .044 - .043 - .040 - .037 .026 - .021 .016

T 5.07 3.13 2.09 1.36 1.23 1.07 0.96 0.74 0.67 - 0.61 0.54 0.53 0.51 0.47 - 0.46 - 0.43 - 0.38 0.27 - 0.22 0.16

p < .001 < .01 < .05 .179 .224 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25 > .25

Discussion

The results indicate that in addition to the variance in the mental rotation performance explained by non-verbal intelligence, significant additional variance was explained by motor development in 5 to 6 year old children. This is in accordance with a study of Isaac and Marcs (1994) that in healthy children and adults motor abilities are correlated with visual imagery, which is a basic mechanism of mental rotation. The results obtained in the present study are independent of children’s gender and age. The absence of gender differences in this age group is at least partially in line with the literature since several studies did not find gender differences before the age of 10 years (i.e. Johnson & Meade, 1987; Levine, Huttenlocher, Taylor, & Langrock, 1999). Thus, we can conclude that the functional relation between motor performance and visual-spatial ability which was suggested on the basis of neuroscientific studies (e.g., Eisenegger, Herwig, & Jäncke, 2007; Tomasino, Borroni, Isaja, & Rumiati, 2005) can be confirmed. Moreover, with our study we could confirm that this relation was observed during the preschool years. Additionally, it is very interesting that the relation between mental rotation and motor development was restricted to specific aspects of motor development as it was specifically the motor control development at the level of MOT 4-6 dimensions and “collecting strikes bimanually” and “winding through a hoop” at the level of MOT 4-6 items, respectively. This is in accordance with studies investigating the importance of visual-spatial abilities in motor control and in pointing movements. To plan a pointing movement the

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knowledge of the start- and goal position is required. Yan, Thomas, Stelmach, and Thomas (2003) found that 5-year-old children planned their pointing movement to a minor degree than older children, maybe because they were less able to integrate the spatial components of the start and goal position. It is assumed that children at the age of 6 years are able to integrate the direction information into their motor plan (i.e. Bard, Hay, & Fleury, 1990; Hay, Bard, Fleury, & Teasdale, 1991). Because mental rotation requires a direction transformation of the object, the correlation between motor control and mental rotation found in this study seems quite plausible. Moreover, we recently trained children in juggling to improve their (bimanual) motor control. Not surprisingly—in the context of the present results—children’s mental rotation performance also improved as a consequence of juggling training but not as a consequence of a mild strength training with thera-band stretch bands (Lange, Jansen, & Heil, submitted). The cognitive task of mental rotation and the motor coordination task of juggling share common features. Both involve cyclic activity and have temporal and spatial constraints. Moreover, juggling requires the spatio-temporal coordination of both hands as does the MOT 4-6 item “collecting strikes bimanually”. In this task 20 strikes each placed left and right to a box have to be collected sequentially and pair wise with both hands simultaneously. The second relevant item, “winding through a hoop” without touching the hoop also requires that only the feet do touch the ground, and therefore, also comprises spatio-temporal coordination, not only of the hands but of the whole body. In contrast, both “catching a stab” and “catching a tennis-ring” did not involve bimanual activities and did not predict significant additional variance of mental rotation performance over and above individual differences in intelligence and in motor control. More data are needed to identify the relevant aspects of motor development for mental rotation ability. To conclude, this study shows that motor development and spatial cognition might be related, but only, if motor ability includes motor coordination. With respect to future studies, it would be interesting to (a) know whether these results could be transferred to other age groups, and (b) whether mental rotation performance improves as a function of motor control training over and above the results regarding juggling (Lange et al., submitted; Jansen, Titze, & Heil, in press).

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Petra Jansen, University of Regensburg, Germany; Martin Heil, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany. Author Note: This study was supported by the German Research Foundation. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Prof. Dr. Petra Jansen, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Email: [email protected] Petra Jansen is director of the Institute for Sport Science at the University of Regensburg. Her research focuses on mental health, spatial cognitive development and motor behaviour. Moreover, she is interested in the training of cognitive performance and the development of children with neurological disorders. Martin Heil is a member of the Institute of Experimental Psychology at the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf. His research focuses on attention, memory, and spatial cognition. Additionally, his work includes psychophysiological and developmental aspects of cognition. Received: April 2008 - Revision received: June 2009 - Accepted: June 2009