Spatial abilities in Down syndrome: a comparison of mental rotation and perspective taking

Authors

• Edward C. Merrill, University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
• Yingying Jennifer Yang, Montclair State UniversityFollow
• Frances Conners, University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
• Beverly Roskos, University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
• Stephanie Grinshpun, Montclair State UniversityFollow
• Samantha Zakrzewski, Montclair State UniversityFollow
• Matthew Baker, Montclair State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-5-2026

Journal / Book Title

Frontiers in Developmental Psychology

Abstract

Introduction: Mental rotation and spatial perspective taking are two key spatial abilities and are integral to one's everyday life. This study compared performance on these two abilities between adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome (DS) and typically developing (TD) children.

Methods: Twenty-three participants with DS and twenty-three TD children were matched using Raven's progressive matrices ability scores. Two experimental tasks measured each spatial ability, and combined scores were calculated for mental rotation and perspective-taking, respectively.

Results: Participants with DS did not differ significantly from their TD counterparts in perspective-taking. However, the groups differed significantly in mental rotation, with participants with DS performing more poorly than TD children. Despite this mean difference, the relation between non-verbal ability and each spatial ability was virtually the same for both groups.

Discussion: Our results supported dissociations between mental rotation and perspective-taking, as one showed a group difference, whereas the other did not. Further, possible strategic processing differences may help explain the group differences in mental rotation. Lastly, the similarities in developmental trajectory slopes between the two groups in mental rotation suggest that people with DS showed a delayed, rather than deviant, developmental pathway of mental rotation relative to TD children.

DOI

10.3389/fdpys.2026.1904887

MSU Digital Commons Citation

Merrill, Edward C.; Yang, Yingying Jennifer; Conners, Frances; Roskos, Beverly; Grinshpun, Stephanie; Zakrzewski, Samantha; and Baker, Matthew, "Spatial abilities in Down syndrome: a comparison of mental rotation and perspective taking" (2026). Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 726.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/psychology-facpubs/726

Rights

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

Published Citation

Merrill EC, Yang Y, Conners F, Roskos B, Grinshpun S, Zakrzewski S and Baker M (2026) Spatial abilities in Down syndrome: a comparison of mental rotation and perspective taking. Front. Dev. Psychol. 4:1904887. doi: 10.3389/fdpys.2026.1904887