Physical Touch-Based Rotation Processes of Primary School Students

We present a novel method for deriving solution strategies used when solving rotation tasks. Process-based findings about physical rotation are obtained from an analysis of how angular disparity between stimuli changes over time. Data on angular disparity was gathered through a study on mental and physical rotation with 37 primary school students between the ages of 8 and 11. For controlling physical rotation, students used touch-based input on our iOS app Rotate it!, which also logged their interactions. Data on changes of angular disparity was used in the construction of Markov models. The models were employed to generate sets of synthetic angular disparity time courses, based on which we identified three distinct rotation-based solution strategies. Our analysis has implications for understanding processes involved in physical and mental rotation alike. It helps to lay grounds on which novel interactive diagnostic and training tools for spatial skills can be developed.