Abstract
In order to get some insight into the change of spatial ability with age, Sakuta, H. et al., Nishihara, S. and Nishihara, K. and Tsutsumi, E. et al. performed the Mental Cutting Test (MCT) to middle- and old-aged people. In this paper, the results of these research works are summarized. Principal results are as follows. (1) The mean scores of the MCT of ordinary people reach peaks at around 30 age and then decreases with age. The mean scores for people aged 60 years and above who have retired from their jobs are significantly lower than those of middle-aged people. (2) On the other hand, the mean scores of mechanical engineering designers keep the peak score up to 50 age, suggesting that daily activities in paying close attention to threedimensional shapes play a key role in keeping high scores in the MCT. (3) The mean scores of the MCT for middleaged male are significantly higher than those for female. The sex difference disappears for the people over 60 years. The analyses on correct answer rates of the individual MCT problems and the comparison of the change of the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) score with age are also discussed.
