Nora S. Newcombe

The Malleability of Spatial Skills: A Meta-analysis of Training Studies

Having good spatial skills strongly predicts achievement and attainment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (e.g., Shea, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2001; Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009). Improving spatial skills is therefore of both theoretical and practical importance. To determine whether and to what extent training and experience can improve these skills, we meta-analyzed 217 research studies investigating the magnitude, moderators, durability, and generalizability of training on spatial skills. After eliminating outliers, the average effect size (Hedgess g) for training relative to control was 0.47 (SE = 0.04). Training effects were stable and were not affected by delays between training and posttesting. Training also transferred to other spatial tasks that were not directly trained. We analyzed the effects of several moderators, including the presence and type of control groups, sex, age, and type of training. Additionally, we included a theoretically motivated typology of spatial skills that emphasizes 2 dimensions: intrinsic versus extrinsic and static versus dynamic (Newcombe & Shipley, in press). Finally, we consider the potential educational and policy implications of directly training spatial skills. Considered together, the results suggest that spatially enriched education could pay substantial dividends in increasing participation in mathematics, science, and engineering.

Is there a geometric module for spatial orientation? squaring theory and evidence

There is evidence, beginning with Cheng (1986), that mobile animals may use the geometry of surrounding areas to reorient following disorientation. Gallistel (1990) proposed that geometry is used to compute the major or minor axes of space and suggested that such information might form an encapsulated cognitive module. Research reviewed here, conducted on a wide variety of species since the initial discovery of the use of geometry and the formulation of the modularity claim, has supported some aspects of the approach, while casting doubt on others. Three possible processing models are presented that vary in the way in which (and the extent to which) they instantiate the modularity claim. The extant data do not permit us to discriminate among them. We propose a modified concept of modularity for which an empirical program of research is more tractable.

The role of experience in spatial test performance: A meta-analysis

The hypothesis that spatial ability is, in part, experientially determined, and that sex differences in spatial ability can be explained by sex differences in spatial experience, can be studied in a correlational manner by examining the relationship between spatial activity participation and spatial ability test performance for males and females. Alternatively, an experimental training situation, comparing male and female susceptibility to training, has been proposed to test the hypothesis that environment has an impact on spatial skills and sex differences in ability. Both lines of research are reviewed here, through the use of meta-analytic techniques. The first meta-analysis reveals a weak but reliable relationship between spatial activity participation and spatial ability. This relationship appears similar for males and females. The second meta-analysis reveals that spatial ability test performance can be improved by training for both sexes. This improvement does not appear different for males and females, however, contrary to a predominant hypothesis in the literature. Training to asymptote may be a better test of the relevance of differential experience to sex differences. Content and duration of training are also discussed as important factors in the effectiveness of training.

Children's Use of Landmarks: Implications for Modularity Theory

Previous studies have shown that disoriented children use the geometric features of the environment to reorient, but the results have not consistently demonstrated whether children can combine such information with landmark information. Results indicating that they cannot suggest the existence of a geometric module for reorientation. However, results indicating that children can use geometric information in combination with landmark information challenge the modularity interpretation. An uncontrolled variable in the studies yielding conflicting results has been the size of the experimental space. In the present studies, which tested young children in spaces of two different sizes, the size of the space affected their ability to use available landmark information. In the small space, the children did not use the landmark to reorient, but in the large space they did. The ability of children to use landmarks in combination with geometric information raises important questions about the existence of an encapsulated geometric module.

The Coding of Spatial Location in Young Children.

The present paper is concerned with the representation of spatial location in young children. We report six experiments which indicate that the basic framework for coding location is present early in life. Later development consists of an increasing ability to impose organization on a broad range of bounded spaces. In the first four experiments, we examined whether very young children, like adults, can locate objects in a homogeneous space, estimating by eye the location of those objects within some frame of reference. Results show that children from 16 to 24 months are able to use distance to code the location of an object hidden in a large sandbox. Coding of distance is not dependent on a juxtaposed outside landmark, nor on the childs own position. In the last two experiments, we examine whether young children, like adults, code the location of an object hierarchically--not only as being in a particular location in a bounded space, but also as being within a larger segment of that space. The pattern of bias in responding provides evidence for such two-level coding of location. The age at which children impose subdivisions on a space depends on the nature of that space. The sandbox is subdivided by 10-year-olds, but not by 4- or 6-year-olds. In contrast, a rectangle of similar shape drawn on paper is subdivided even by 4-year-olds. We argue that 16-month-olds in the sandbox studies also use hierarchical coding, treating the whole box as a category, although they do not divide it into subsections.

Sex differences in spatial ability and spatial activities

Explanations of sex-related differences in spatial ability emphasizing the role of sex-differentiated experience have not been supported by direct measurement of spatial activities during adolescence, the period when these differences seem to increase. The present research involved development of a scale to measure the spatial experience of adolescents and adults. In Study 1, a list, as complete as possible of adolescent activities was compiled and given to undergraduate judges for ratings of involvement of spatial skills and sex-typing. Judges also indicated whether they had participated in each activity. Activities considered spatial by 75% or more of the judges were used to develop a spatial experience questionnaire. Judgments of the spatial nature of tasks were positively correlated with judged masculinity and with greater male than female participation. In Study 2, participation in spatial activities by undergraduates was correlated with spatial ability as measured by the Differential Aptitude Test. The activity questionnaire should prove useful in studying the development of spatial ability in adolescents and adults.

Turn Left at the Church, Or Three Miles North A Study of Direction Giving and Sex Differences

This study examined how college students give directions from maps, either with maps perceptually available, or after maps had been memorized. Six aspects of direction giving were coded: use of landmarks, use of relational terms, use of cardinal directions, use of mileage estimates, and frequency of omission and commission errors. In accord with predictions, males used more mileage estimates and cardinal directions than did females and made fewer errors. Use of cardinal directions and mileage estimates were rarer, in relation to opportunities to use them, than use of landmarks and relational terms. Correlations among the dependent variables suggested that use of relational terms and use of cardinal directions may trade off, with speakers using one or the other but not both. Results are discussed in the context of the distinction between competence and stylistic preference.

Socioeconomic Status Modifies the Sex Difference in Spatial Skill

We examined whether the male spatial advantage varies across children from different socioeconomic (SES) groups. In a longitudinal study, children were administered two spatial tasks requiring mental transformations and a syntax comprehension task in the fall and spring of second and third grades. Boys from middle-and high-SES backgrounds outperformed their female counterparts on both spatial tasks, whereas boys and girls from a low-SES group did not differ in their performance level on these tasks. As expected, no sex differences were found on the verbal comprehension task. Prior studies have generally been based on the assumption that the male spatial advantage reflects ability differences in the population as a whole. Our finding that the advantage is sensitive to variations in SES provides a challenge to this assumption, and has implications for a successful explanation of the sex-related difference in spatial skill.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL LOCATION CODING: PLACE LEARNING AND DEAD RECKONING IN THE SECOND AND THIRD YEARS

Abstract There are two possible ways to code spatial location: viewer-referenced and externally referenced systems. The mature form of each system makes use of metric information (in forms of coding termed dead reckoning and place learning, respectively). Each system also exists in a simpler form not using metric information (termed response learning and cue learning, respectively). We report an experiment designed to examine the development of the two mature forms of spatial coding. Children aged 16 to 36 months were asked to search for objects hidden in a long rectangular sandbox, after they moved to the opposite side of the box, either with visual landmarks available or in a curtained environment. When moving in a curtained environment, and hence needing to rely primarily on dead reckoning, children across this age range performed at levels above chance but reliably less accurate than when they did not move. The size of the decrement due to movement did not decrease with age. Thus, the dead reckoning system may become available before 16 months but undergo no further improvement through 3 years. On the other hand, comparisons between children who moved in the curtained environment and children who moved with visual landmarks available showed that only children older than 21 months did better when external landmarks could be seen. This finding suggests a relatively late emergence of place learning.

Environmental input to the development of sex-related differences in spatial and mathematical ability

Abstract This article summarizes the empirical support for two conclusions: (1) environmental input is essential for the development of both spatial and mathematical skill; (2) environmental input of the essential sort is more common in the lives of boys than girls. A causal link between these two facts and the existence of sex-related differences in spatial and mathematical ability is less well established, however; the relevant studies have simply not been done. Given this lack of knowledge, but firm support for the first two conclusions, the best course for education is to nurture spatial and mathematical ability more intensively, in both boys and girls.