Three experiments examined the ability of 4- and 5-year- olds and adults to identify correspondences in spatial ratios. Results suggested that young children made accurate spatial proportionality judgments based on relational information and not on the exact form of the stimuli. Findings pose implications for theories of mathematical development…

Suggests that scientific thought experiments (TEs) draw upon three epistemological resources: conceptual-logical inferences, visual imagery, and bodily-motor experience. Argues that TEs are powerful because of students' thought capabilities related to imagination and visual imagery. Claims that TEs are not currently exploited by school learning…

Three studies, involving 72 3-month-old infants, demonstrated that infants remembered some of the original feature combinations of a mobile they had been trained to activate for up to 3 days but forgot all of them after 4 days. Even after 4 days, however, infants remembered the individual features that had entered into the original combinations.…

Examined effects of spatial precues on rapid execution of aim in 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds, providing kinematic support to the role of precues in aiming tasks performed under temporal constraints. Found that precuing spatial dimensions of movement shortened reaction times as a function of the number of precued parameters. Spatial precues modified…

Proposes that humans may have evolved a special sensitivity to certain types of social information during rough-and-tumble play that facilitates social cognition. Describes the cognitive benefits of physical play as providing a break from demanding intellectual tasks and hypothesizes that physical play is related to gender differences in spatial…

Presents the observations of a panel of research experts who have conducted research on music and the brain. States that the participants are Andrea Halpern, Larry Parsons, Ralph Spintge, and Sandra Trehub. After an introduction of each person, the participants characterized their principal findings. (CMK)

Describes new geometric computer models used in contemporary computer-aided design (CAD) software including wire frame, surface, solid, and parametric models. Reviews their use in engineering design and discusses the impact of these new technologies on the engineering design graphics curriculum. (Author/CCM)

Describes how to deal with students' structuring of rectangular arrays of squares and other two-dimensional regions. Presents activities that connect spatial structuring to the development of multiplicative thinking. (ASK)

Reviews selected literature on child development about children's symbol use in performance of spatial and mathematical tasks. Describes the musical development of a child over a period of 16 months and shows how principles of symbol use from outside music can guide interpretations of children's symbol acquisition. (CMK)

A study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM), declarative strategy knowledge, and math achievement in 111 children with and without mathematical disabilities (MD). Results found verbal and visual-spatial WM, stable verbal strategy choices, and expert strategy choices related to visual-spatial processing all contributed…

Investigates the relationship of cognitive and demographic variables to learning outcomes from a multimedia Goal-Based Scenario (GBS) lesson on DNA. Focuses on gender, ethnicity, prior science coursework in college and high school, final score in current chemistry course as demographic variables and logical thinking ability, spatial ability, and…

This study tested the presence of the face inversion effect in 4-month-old infants using habituation to criterion followed by a novelty preference paradigm. Results of Experiment 1 confirmed previous findings, showing that when 1 single photograph of a face is presented in the habituation phase and when infants are required to recognize the same…

Objective: Deficits in executive functioning, including working memory (WM) deficits, have been suggested to be important in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). During 2002 to 2003, the authors conducted a multicenter, randomized, controlled, double-blind trial to investigate the effect of improving WM by computerized, systematic…

An important component in the early stages of skill development is spatial awareness. This article discusses how good spatial awareness in children results from concepts that are reinforced throughout the school's curriculum. Activities for developing spatial awareness are also provided.

In this article, we examine the role of visuospatial cognition in chemistry learning. We review three related kinds of literature: correlational studies of spatial abilities and chemistry learning, students' conceptual errors and difficulties understanding visual representations, and visualization tools that have been designed to help overcome…