Cognitive Modifiability of Mental Rotation: Effects of Mediation, Sex, and Working Memory Among Third-Grade Students

The present study examined the effects of a brief motoric mediation intervention, delivered within a dynamic assessment (DA) framework, on mental rotation (MR) performance among third-grade children. The study also investigated the roles of sex and spatial working memory (SWM). Participants completed two MR tasks, a Windows Mental Rotation (WMR) test and the Seria-Think–MR (STI-MR) test, assessing generalization. Each task was administered before and after a single mediation session. Four major findings emerged. (a) Children who received individualized motoric mediation demonstrated significantly greater MR gains than control children on both tasks. (b) The intervention produced a generalization effect, with improvements observed even on the structurally distinct STI-MR task. (c) No significant sex differences or sex-related interactions were found. (d) The positive pre-intervention correlation between SWM and WMR weakened after mediation, suggesting reduced reliance on WM resources following the acquisition of more efficient MR strategies. Across both tasks, a consistent Degree of Rotation × Time interaction indicated disproportionately larger gains at higher rotation angles, and children showed evidence of strategic reframing, particularly in interpreting 270° rotations as equivalent to 90° in the opposite direction. These findings support the theoretical framework of Structural Cognitive Modifiability and highlight the potential of motoric mediation to foster flexible spatial strategies. The results also underscore the educational value of integrating spatially rich, hands-on activities into early curricula and demonstrate the diagnostic utility of DA for identifying children’s learning potential. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.