This study investigated the development of abstract mathematical thought and spatial relations of 13- and 14-year-old students who attended public schools in Australia, Japan, and the United States. Dependent variables included age, ability grouping, ethnicity, sex, mathematics attitudes, and mathematics classroom behaviors. Significant…

This paper discusses the results of two studies both dealing with spatial abilities and training. The first investigated the kinds of spatial strategies and personal experiences, both nonacademic and academic, that distinguish students preparing for high spatial careers from others. The second study focused on the effectiveness of spatial training…

A study was made to investigate the hypothesis that the ability to determine, on a map, where one is located and in which direction one is headed, requires an understanding of the ways in which views change from different locations and orientations. Approximately 200 kindergarten through second-grade children were first tested individually for…

A total of 60 children, 20 preschoolers, 20 first-graders, and 20 third-graders, participated in a game involving communication of spatial information. Subjects gave verbal directions to help another person find a hidden object, in this case, a small toy hidden under one of a number of cups. Two experimental conditions were set up, the first…

Research on hemispheric mode functioning indicates that some connections exist between learning disabilities (LD) and right-mode dominance, which suggests that instruction should be offered to develop right hemispheric (spatial perception) abilities in LD persons. The influence on student drawing of the right-left hemispheric shift during reading…

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…

Recent theoretical developments in cognitive psychology imply both a need and a possibility for methodological development. In particular, the theory of problem solving proposed by Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon (1972) provides the rationale for a new empirical method for the processing of think-aloud protocols--trace analysis. A detailed…

Based upon 15 interviews, the paper discusses specific educational and social problems as perceived by nine brain injured learners (14-24 years old), their teachers, families, and peers. Interview excerpts illustrate executive functions of self-awareness, self-evaluation, and self-monitoring; the effects on families; and student difficulties in…

A major issue concerning adult intellectual development is whether intellectual decline in late adulthood is uniform or ability-specific. Differential patterns of ability decline were analyzed by comparing data on longitudinal age change over the age range from 53 to 81 years from two successive 14-year periods (1956-1970 and 1970-1984). The…

The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to evaluate the test-retest reliability of four theoretical measures (distance, angle, vertical, and horizontal error) of the Felt Figure Replacement Technique (FFRT) (Kuethe, 1962); (2) to assess sex differences in performance accuracy for those measures found to be reliable; and (3) to examine…

In order to determine whether egocentrism can be conceptualized as a unitary construct, 100 children (51 four-year-olds, 37 five-year-olds, and 12 six-year-olds) were administered a visual/spatial perspective task, a cognitive/communicative task, and an affective task. All tasks were designed to measure different facets of egocentrism. The 50…

This bibliography cites references dealing with background material on the functions of the human brain and current research on sex differences in brain development. A list of 10 books published since 1974 is followed by a more extensive annotated bibliography of 29 articles, and a bibliography of 19 reports, complete with ERIC reference numbers…

This paper identifies issues which can best be understood within a geographic dimension and suggests how educators at all levels can help students understand the increasing interdependence in economic, political, social, and technological systems by emphasizing geography's integrative dimensions. Geography's potential as an integrating force in…

Four factors have been reported in the literature as being related to spatial test performance. This study investigated the main and interaction effects of sex, handedness, birth order, and experience on three different types of spatial performance; surface development, object rotation, and coordination of viewpoints. A total of 217 undergraduate…

The document attempts to integrate aspects of two lines of research relating to picture recognition and the comprehension of pictorial space. It also describes an empirical study carried out in Nepal which tested rural adult subjects' understanding of topological, euclidean, and projective concepts in regard to real objects and to pictures. The…