Re-analyses support PSVT:R structural validity: degree of rotation explains 66.9% of item-difficulty variance, though modified problematic items show no rotation-difficulty relationship¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r2 · q2 · i0–i3
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i3 A pooled re-analysis of unmodified PSVT:R item data found degree of rotation strongly associated with item difficulty (pooled Spearman's ρ = −0.82), explaining 66.9% of variance and leaving 33.1% construct-irrelevant variance. → Buckley 2026 q2 i0 For the subset of 11 modified PSVT:Rmod items, there was no relationship between rotation required and difficulty (ρ = −0.09, p = .79), while the full instrument retained a significant relationship. → Buckley 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Buckley 2026¶

Buckley, J., Sorby, S., Duffy, G., Maresch, G., & Power, J. (2026). Gender Differences in Mental Rotation and Visualisation Across Adolescence: Large Scale Evidence from the United States, Ireland, and Austria with Single-Paper Meta-Analyses. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10149-0

q2 · i3 · quant-synthesis · r1

The authors' own meta-analysis of their re-analyses of published PSVT:R item-level data (Maeda et al.; Bartlett and Camba), analysing item rotation against correct response rate. It "yielded a pooled Spearman's ρ = −0.82", supporting structural validity with residual construct-irrelevant variance.

"A meta-analysis of these re-analyses (see analytic code in Supplementary Material) for the unmodified PSVT:R (N = 2,897), yielded a pooled Spearman's ρ = −0.82, indicating that the degree of rotation explains 66.9% of the variance in item difficulty, leaving 33.1% unexplained construct-irrelevant variance."

Buckley 2026 (2)¶

Buckley, J., Sorby, S., Duffy, G., Maresch, G., & Power, J. (2026). Gender Differences in Mental Rotation and Visualisation Across Adolescence: Large Scale Evidence from the United States, Ireland, and Austria with Single-Paper Meta-Analyses. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10149-0

q2 · i0 · associational · r2

The authors' re-analysis of Bartlett and Camba's PSVT:Rmod data, in which 11 of 30 items had required rotation changed. For the modified subset "there was no relationship between the amount of rotation required and difficulty" (ρ = −0.09), while the full instrument retained a significant relationship.

"However, for the subset of 11 modified items only, there was no relationship between the amount of rotation required and difficulty, ρ = −0.09, p =.79; χ2(1) = 2,017, p =.16, Cramer's V = 0.02."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

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