Spatial thinking permeates much of our lives and is an asset when solving problems involving well-structured visual information or imagining solutions in physical or digital space. However, an estimated three million US school children have spatial talents that go unrecognized because of the tools commonly used for identification of academic…

Spatial thinking permeates much of our lives and is an asset when solving problems involving well-structured visual information or imagining solutions in physical or digital space. However, an estimated three million US school children have spatial talents that go unrecognized because of the tools commonly used for identification of academic…

Spatial ability is an influential factor for academic performance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. However, the roles of spatial strategies are unclear. Therefore, coupling with virtual Starmaze developed by fields of cognitive neuroscience, this study aimed to explore spatial strategy among STEM students and…

Many studies in the past decades have focused on low and typical mathematics achievers, yet little is known about children with high mathematics achievement, particularly at a young age. The current study aimed to fill this gap and started from the early work of Krutetskii (1976) as a theoretical lens to study the characteristics of high…

We examined the role of visuo-spatial working memory in different types of arithmetic ability in children. Previous research had suggested that arithmetic is not a single entity (Dowker, 2005, 2015), and also that visuo-spatial working memory is specifically involved in mathematical cognition (McKenzie et al., 2003) There has, however, been little…

Background: Spatial problem-solving is an essential skill for success in many engineering disciplines; thus, understanding the cognitive processes involved could help inform the design of training interventions for students trying to improve this skill. Prior research has yet to investigate the differences in cognitive processes between spatial…

Background: Despite the numerous positive effects of augmented reality (AR) on learning, previous research has shown ambiguous results regarding the cognitive demand on the learner arising from, for example, the overlay of virtual elements or novel interaction techniques. At the same time, the number of evidence-based guidelines on designing AR is…

Visuospatial representations of numbers and their relationships are widely used in mathematics education. These include drawn images, models constructed with concrete manipulatives, enactive/embodied forms, computer graphics, and more. This paper addresses the analytical limitations and ethical implications of methodologies that use broad…

Spatial ability is a significant component of mathematical ability and a foundation for children to master mathematical knowledge. Although many studies have confirmed that technology can enhance children's learning, few have explored the use of technology in the area of children's spatial learning. In this study, we adopted a paradigm for…

Extant literature has preliminarily confirmed the potential benefits of holographic projections for educational purposes. Yet, students' experiences of learning by holographic projection have rarely been addressed. The main purpose of this study was therefore to explore students' conceptions of and approaches to learning by holographic projection.…

In mathematics education, students are repeatedly confronted with the tasks of interpreting and relating different representations. In particular, switching between equations and diagrams plays a major role in learning mathematical procedures and solving mathematical problems. In this article, we investigate a rather unexplored topic with…

Many students persistently misinterpret histograms. This calls for closer inspection of students' strategies when interpreting histograms and case-value plots (which look similar but are different). Using students' gaze data, we ask: "How and how well do upper secondary pre-university school students estimate and compare arithmetic means of…

Why do people shift their strategies for solving problems? Past work has focused on the roles of contextual and individual factors in explaining whether people adopt new strategies when they are exposed to them. In this study, we examined a factor not considered in prior work: people's evaluations of the strategies themselves. We presented…

Ninety-seven children aged 4-11 (49 males, 48 females, mostly White) were given the opportunity to improve their problem-solving performance by devising and implementing a novel cognitive offloading strategy. Across two phases, they searched for hidden rewards using maps that were either aligned or misaligned with the search space. In the second…

Why do people shift their strategies for solving problems? Past work has focused on the roles of contextual and individual factors in explaining whether people adopt new strategies when they are exposed to them. In this study, we examined a factor not considered in prior work: people's evaluations of the strategies themselves. We presented…