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Same space, different plans: Sex differences in the organization of spatial cognition

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Daniela Aguilar¹, Zitong Wu¹, Catalina Basualto San Martin¹, Claudia L.R. Gonzalez¹; ¹The University of Lethbridge

Spatial abilities involve perceiving, manipulating, and remembering spatial relationships among objects. Two subcomponents that consistently show sex differences are mental rotation (MR) and object location memory (OLM): males outperform females on MR tasks, whereas females excel on OLM. However, it remains underexplored whether relationships among these spatial subcomponents differ within each sex, limiting our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms underlying sex differences in spatial abilities. In the present study, human participants (adults ages 18 and older) completed the well-established MR (Shepard & Metzler, 1971) and OLM tests (Silverman & Eals, 1992). Participants were also given two ecologically valid board game tasks assessing similar abilities: Qbitz for MR and Spot It! for OLM. Consistent with prior findings, males outperformed females on the MR test and Qbitz, whereas females outperformed males on the OLM test and Spot It!. Importantly, the relationships among these tasks differed by sex. Regression analyses showed that, for males, performance in Qbitz and Spot it! uniquely predicted MR and OLM scores, respectively. In contrast, for females, Spot It! predicted MR test scores, while no task predicted OLM results. These findings suggest that males exhibit a more specialized, modular organization of spatial cognition, with distinct mechanisms supporting different spatial processes. In contrast, females show a more integrated, less differentiated organization, where overlapping mechanisms contribute to performance across spatial domains. This sex-specific pattern of organization provides new insight into the cognitive mechanisms underlying spatial abilities.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Other