Thirty-four third graders matched 14 foldout shapes (nets) with seven polyhedra. They had more success associating nets containing triangular regions than nets with only rectangular regions. It was easier to identify nets of pyramids and of a triangular prism when the lateral faces were distributed around the bases. (MNS)

Examines spatial concepts required by young children for the understanding and manipulation of turn commands in Logo, and reviews the literature on children's Logo learning and the psychological-cognitive development of spatial concepts. Geometric concepts, alternative frames of reference, and the use of Turtle graphics are also discussed. (39…

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the difficulties met by adults with lower levels of education on reading perspective drawings. Subjects were asked to describe verbally two perspective drawings of objects, then choose objects with defined spatial properties. Results indicated that success was an "all or…

Experiments to probe the nature of one mode of thinking, imagined spatial operations, have been devised. Results confirm that the mind can model physical processes, subjecting them to the geometric constraints that hold in the external world. The experimental work and implications are discussed in detail. (MNS)

Conservation ability, spatial motor ability, age, and gender were used as predictive variables in a study of 26 kindergarten children's computer programming ability. A preliminary pilot study with first graders had suggested that programming success was related to the ability to reverse thought processes. In both studies, children were taught to…

Seventy fifth-grade students in Australia were observed as each solved a jigsaw puzzle. Boys obtained higher scores on a measure of cognitive style and took less time to complete the jigsaw task; the two measures were significantly correlated. Uses of tangrams are also discussed. (MNS)

Some research indicates that students often think that their drawings of three dimensional objects can be done without ambiguity, and that properties of drawings are properties of the objects. This "knowing vs. seeing" conflict was studied in three French sixth grade classes. (PK)

Reports a study designed to identify 9 and 11 year olds' ways of drawing nets of solids and to provide opportunities for them to reflect on their models in whole class discussions. Results indicated that children's views of solids' nets progressed from more global and holistic to more quantitative and analytic. (MDH)

Varied conditions under which children aged four to five years matched the area of a rectangle with a given width or height to that of a square. Subjects matched one dimension of the rectangle to one side of the square suggesting that area matches seemed to be based on a side-matching strategy. (Author/AS)

Tests seven- , 10- , and 13-year-olds for developmental differences in processes and strategies involved in geometric matrix solution and the relationship between strategy differences and item complexity. (AS)