The Impact of the Testing Environment on Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Performance: Does Virtual Reality Make a Difference?

Mental rotation ability plays a crucial role in learning outcomes in STEM subjects - the ongoing debate questions whether and, if so, why men outperform women in mental rotation. Existing mental rotation tests (MRTs) have recently been criticized for being male-biased in their design. In our study, we attempted to overcome potential MRT design bias by integrating the renowned MRT into an immersive virtual reality (iVR) environment that reduces those biases. In a sample of N = 731 university students, we examined whether the iVR environment had an impact on MRT performance for males and females compared to (a) the paper-and-pencil condition and (b) a tablet condition. Our findings reveal the consistent superiority of male over female students in MRT performance across the three conditions. However, this discrepancy is attenuated in both technology-supported conditions. Based on the mediation model, cognitive effort partially mediated gender differences in mental rotation performance in the paper-and-pencil and tablet conditions, but not in iVR, suggesting that the role of perceived mental workload in gender disparities may vary depending on the testing environment.