Researchers interested in the associations of gender with spatial experience and spatial ability have not yet focused on several activities that have become common in the modern digital age. In this study, using a new questionnaire called the Survey of Spatial Representation and Activities (SSRA), we examined spatial experiences with computers and videogames in a sample of nearly 1,300 undergraduate students. Large gender differences, which favored men, were found in computer experience. Although men and women also differed on SAT scores, gender differences in computer experience were still apparent with SAT factored out. Furthermore, men and women with high and low levels of computer experience, who were selected for more intensive study, were found to differ significantly on the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). Path analyses showed that computer experience substantially mediates the gender difference in spatial ability observed on the MRT. These results collectively suggest that the "Digital Divide" is an important phenomenon and that encouraging women and girls to gain spatial experiences, such as computer usage, might help to bridge the gap in spatial ability between the sexes. Read more...

This study examined how computer-game preference relates to mental-rotation test (MRT) performance and to gender differences. Subjects were 861 German secondary-school children (mean age = 14.67; range 10-20 years). Latent class analysis with the data of a computer-game preference scale revealed three types of players: "non-players", "action-and-simulation game players" and "logic-and-skill-training game players". Large gender differences were found with respect to class assignment. More females than males were found in the "logic-and-skill-training game player" class (82.9%) and in the class of "non-players" (81.9%). Males in contrast were overrepresented (81.7%) in the class of "action-and-simulation game players". As expected, males on average outperformed females in mental-rotation test performance (d = 0.63). Furthermore, ANOVA results indicated mean differences in mental-rotation ability between action-and-simulation players and non-players (partial eta(2) = .01) as well as age differences (partial eta(2) =.04). With boys, non-players on average had lower MRT scores than action-and-simulation game players. For females, computer-game preference was unrelated to MRT performance. Results are discussed within a nature-nurture-interactionist framework of gender differences in spatial abilities. Read more...

Software engineers use system visualization mainly in two domains: algorithm visualization and system visualization, and both of these are often animated. In this paper we provide a generic link between the specification and animation of complex object-oriented reactive systems, which constitute one of the most important and difficult classes of systems. The link and its methodology form a basis for communication between standard reactive specification tools and standard animation tools. Reactive Animation can be used in a wide range of applications: computer games, navigation and traffic systems, interactive scientific visualization. Reactive Animation helps make the programming of such applications more reliable, expeditious and natural to observe and comprehend. We illustrate two examples: a complex biological model of thymic T-cell behavior and a traffic simulation(1). Read more...