An investigation of mental rotation in infancy using change detection

Two experiments were conducted to examine mental rotation in 6- to 12-month-old infants (N = 166) using a change detection task. These experiments were replications of Lauer and Lourenco (Lauer et al., 2015; Lauer & Lourenco, 2016), using identical stimuli and variations of their procedure, including an exact replication conducted in a laboratory setting (Experiment 1), and an online assessment using Lookit (Scott et al.,2017; Scott & Schulz, 2017) (Experiment 2). Both experiments failed to replicate the results of the original study; in neither experiment did infants’ behavior provide evidence that they mentally rotated the object. Results are discussed in terms of the robustness of mental rotation in infancy and about limits in our experimental procedures for uncovering perceptual and cognitive abilities in infants. •The robustness of infant mental rotation was assessed in two pre-registered replication studies.•Six-to-twelve-month-old infants were tested in a mental rotation change detection procedure.•Infants failed to display evidence of mental rotation in either an exact or conceptual replication.•These results suggest that infant mental rotation is fragile and difficult to isolate in the change detection procedure.