Three experiments investigated use of visual input and body movement input arising from movement through the world on spatial orientation. Experiments involved infants searching for a toy hidden in one of two containers. Findings indicated that search was best after infant movement in a lit environment prior to searching; all other conditions led…

This study compared effects of visual occlusion on the motor and spatial learning of 28 legally blind adult males, half due to acuity loss and half due to peripheral field restriction. For both groups, occlusion appeared neither to facilitate nor impede motor learning but did significantly impair acquisition of spatial relations. Results have…

High school students gifted in spatial ability were selected from a large national sample and compared to those gifted in mathematical ability on multiple measures. The students gifted with spatial ability had interests less compatible with traditional coursework and lower levels of academic and occupational success. (SLD)

As one high school teacher found, allowing students to use preferred learning modalities can increase their enthusiasm, raise their achievement levels, and foster growth in other intelligences. This article shows how two students demonstrated their mastery of nuclear and organic chemistry by using kinesthetic and spatial problem-solving…

This psychological phenomenological research analyzed cognition of 7 adult inventors and proposes a theory of original, creative thinking. Spatial intelligence is reviewed. Results provide 7 findings, including cognitive, motivational, affective, and psychokinesthetic factors. Spatial-temporal intelligence is theorized as an abstract model of…

The relationship between verbal and visual-spatial working memory and mathematical computation skill was examined in 98 children and adults with and without mathematical disabilities. A hierarchical regression analysis, when partialing for reading ability, age, and gender influences, showed mathematical computation was better predicted by verbal…

Examined in 4 experiments 3- and 4-year-olds' ability to communicate about containment and proximity relations. Found that when describing where a toy mouse was hidden, children were more likely to successfully disambiguate a small landmark when it was in, rather than next to, the large landmark. Three-year-olds initiated searches faster when the…

Nine-year olds completed measures of general intelligence, visuospatial ability, and verbal fluency. Subjects were 107 Korean children and 115 British children. Found that Korean children scored higher on general intelligence and visuospatial ability and lower on verbal fluency than British children. (BC)

How learning styles (massed versus distributed practice) influence the relationship between abilities and task performance was studied with 209 undergraduates. Analysis reveals that perceptual speed contributes to performance for subjects who massed practice, whereas spatial visualization contributed for those who distributed practice.…

Examines the ability of infants to track and anticipate the final orientation of an object. Subjects were infants ranging from an average of four months to eight months old. Three experiments, with the last one as control, were carried out. Concludes that infants show some rudimentary mental rotation from four months of age. (MOK)

Two studies documented and evaluated parental scaffolding of three- and four-year olds' spatial communication in direction-giving tasks. Found that both age groups benefited from directive prompts, but 3-year olds benefited less than 4-year olds from nondirective prompts. (MDM)

Summarizes similarities and differences between the working memory models of Pascual-Leone and Baddeley. Debates whether each model makes a specific contribution to explanation of Kemps, De Rammelaere, and Desmet's results. Argues for necessity of theoretical task analyses. Compares a study similar to that of Kemps et al. in which different…

Two studies investigated whether language-specific patterns encoding manner and direction of motion in English and Greek affect adult and child speakers' performance on nonlinguistic motion tasks and linguistic descriptions of these motion events. Although the two linguistic groups differed in linguistic preferences, nonlinguistic task performance…

This study compared the spatial-geometrical abilities of 85 students (ages 5-13) with learning disabilities (LD) and 94 children without LD, matched for IQ and age. Generally, students with LD did not perform as well as same-aged students without LD, suggesting that LD students experience delayed development in this general spatial-cognitive…

Used steady-state probe topography to investigate the cortical activity of 12 average and 12 high IQ Australian college students during a spatial working memory task. Results, in terms of changes in visual evoked potentials, suggest that the areas of the brain involved in working memory are influenced by individual differences in intelligence.…