Mental rotation ability is associated with successful advances in STEM (science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics) education and occupations. Meta-analyses have shown
consistent sex disparities in mental rotation, where men outperform women on one measure
of mental rotation ability, the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). Spatial anxiety, or the fear and
apprehension felt when completing a task that requires spatial thinking, was proposed as a
mechanism explaining the relation between sex and mental rotation test performance. This …