People with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have difficulties mentally simulating events, perhaps due to a difficulty mentally generating and maintaining a coherent spatial scene -- that is, 'scene construction'. The current study compared scene construction ability between autistic adults (N = 55) and age-, gender- and Intelligence…

The skill of spatial learning and orientation is fundamental in humans and differs widely among individuals. Despite its importance, however, the malleability of this skill through practice has scarcely been studied empirically, in contrast to psychometric spatial ability. Thus, this article examines the possibility of improving the accuracy of…

Previous research has demonstrated that cognitive offloading (i.e., externalizing mental processes) is useful for immediate problem solving. However, long-term effects of cognitive offloading on subsequent problem solving without offloading are remarkably understudied. Our main goal was to investigate the effects of representation control (i.e.,…

Individuals with better spatial thinking have increased interest and greater achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009). This relationship means that STEM education may benefit from leveraging spatial thinking, but measures of spatial thinking as they relate to specific…

Rational number understanding is a critical building block for success in more advanced mathematics; however, how rational number magnitudes are conceptualized is not fully understood. In the current study, we used a dual-task working memory (WM) interference paradigm to investigate the dominant type of strategy (i.e., requiring verbal WM…

The formation and manipulation of mental images represents a key ability for successfully solving visuospatial tasks like Wechsler's Block Design or visual reasoning problems, tasks where autistics perform at higher levels than predicted by their Wechsler IQ. Visual imagery can be used to compare two mental images, allowing judgment of their…

It is widely recognized that experience with cognitive tests can influence estimates of cognitive change. Prior research has estimated experience effects at the level of groups by comparing the performance of a group of participants tested for the second time with the performance of a different group of participants at the same age tested for the…

Normative adult age-related decrements are well documented for many diverse forms of effortful cognitive processing. However, it is currently unclear whether each of these decrements reflects a distinct and independent developmental phenomenon, or, in part, a more global phenomenon. A number of studies have recently been published that show…

Investigated differences in performance between sexes on a spatial visualization task constructing pentaminos and whether supplying clues to the learner to guide would be a factor in performance. Concluded that males were more adept at identifying the shapes than females. (YP)

To explore the relationship between spatial ability and both image quality and image process efficiency, 79 subjects completed spatial tests, imagery questionnaires, and laboratory tasks. Laboratory measures of process efficiency and image quality were strongly related to spatial test performance and weakly related to one another. (Author/BW)

Six experiments assessed young children's spatial orientation relative to their imagined surroundings. The experiments found that children as young as 3.5 years were able, like adults, to accurately walk along a path that replicated the route between their seat and the teacher's desk in their preschool classroom. (MDM)

Individual difference variables that are potentially related to cognitive mapping skills were examined, and good and poor cognitive mappers were compared in terms of those variables. Good and poor cognitive mappers were identified on the basis of the accuracy of their spatial knowledge about their own community. Four categories of individual…

A questionnaire designed to assess experience with activities presumed to require spatial visualization abilities and psychometric tests of these abilities were given to 383 adults of 20 to 83 years of age. Findings suggested that at least some age-related differences in cognitive functioning are independent of the amount of experience with…

Twenty-four adults with mild mental retardation were compared with equal-mental age children and adults without mental retardation on tactile processing asymmetries. Results suggest that hemispheric processing is dependent on information processing requirements rather than type of stimulus. (Author/JDD)

This report presents the results of a study designed to evaluate the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation's (JOCRF's) measurement of structural visualization. Three experimental tests--the Incomplete Open Cubes Test, the Guilford-Zimmerman Spatial Visualization Test, and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices--were added to the JOCRF's test battery…