A dual-processing paradigm was used to investigate information processing limitations underlying specific language impairment (SLI). School-age children with and without SLI were asked to recall verbal and spatial stimuli in situations that varied the number of tasks that were required and the speed at which stimuli were presented. Children…

This study has important implications for microworlds such as Logo, HyperGami, and Newton's World, which use interaction to learn spatial mental models for science, math, geometry, etc. This study tested the hypothesis that interactively rotating (dragging) virtual shapes primes mental rotation. The independent variable was observation vs.…

The author describes a pilot study to investigate the extent to which learners use imagery in a variety of spatial problems. In order to discover how to encourage pupils to use imagery and thus to become better problem solvers, this study set out firstly to explore how pupils are able to use imagery in a variety of tasks. The tasks involved mental…

Cognitive research on metaphoric concepts of time has focused on differences between moving Ego and moving time models, but even more basic is the contrast between Ego- and temporal-reference-point models. Dynamic models appear to be quasi-universal cross-culturally, as does the generalization that in Ego-reference-point models, FUTURE IS IN FRONT…

Imaginal perspective switches are often considered to be difficult, because they call for additional cognitive transformations of object coordinates (transformation hypothesis). Recent research suggests that problems can also result from conflicts between incompatible sensorimotor and cognitive object location codes during response specification…

The authors examined whether absolute and relative judgments about global-scale locations and distances were generated from common representations. At the end of a 10-week class on the regional geography of the United States, participants estimated the latitudes of 16 North American cities and all possible pairwise distances between them. Although…

In a mental rotation task, children 5 and 6 years of age and adults had to decide as quickly as possible if a photograph of a hand showed a left or a right limb. The visually presented hands were left and right hands in palm or in back view, presented in four different angles of rotation. Participants had to give their responses with their own…

Purpose: Investigations of the cognitive processes underlying specific language impairment (SLI) have implicated deficits in verbal short-term and working memory and in particular the storage and processing of phonological information. This study investigated short-term and working memory for visuospatial material for a group of children with SLI,…

Information coordination tasks are tasks that require concurrent performance of two or more component tasks and the subsequent coordination of component information. In this experiment, different procedures, componential and contextual, were used to train separate groups of college campus community members (n=35 and n=33) in a coordination task…

The construct of spatial ability is discussed and it is suggested that some widely used and cited tests that are called spatial ability tests may not be valid measures of that ability. Instead, their items may be solved using mental processes that are clearly analytical and not spatial in nature. Four studies involving the analysis of subjects'…

Presents study findings which supported the use of answer-until-correct tests. Discusses results based on responses of secondary students from England (N=387) that revealed that the answer-until-correct test of mechanical reasoning had similar findings to the spatial reasoning test. (ML)

A conceptual theory for predicting the relations between intellectual abilities and performance during task practice is proposed and is evaluated through an experiment with high school and college students. This macro-theory integrates hierarchical theories of intellectual abilities with information-processing theories of automatic and controlled…

Results of two studies indicate a tendency among young children to impose organization on information encoded in memory and in relation to increases in metric accuracy, decentration, and efficient scanning, which enable them to more accurately evaluate when such organization is and is not appropriate. (Author)

An information-processing model was tested for a laboratory visualization task that represents one adaptation of a standardized spatial ability test. The pattern of results suggests that individual differences are a function of differences in the accuracy and/or quality of the mental representation, not just speed of processing. (Author/BW)

Sex differences in cognitive skills, grouped into motor, spatial and linguistic areas, are assessed in relation to current theories of cerebral lateralization. Few convincing sex differences exist, either overall, or in interactions with functional localization. Qualifying criteria include age, birth order, culture, sex of experimenter and sex…