Visual comparison is a key process in everyday learning and reasoning. Recent research has discovered the spatial alignment principle, based on the broader framework of structure-mapping theory in comparison. According to the spatial alignment principle, visual comparison is more efficient when the figures being compared are arranged in…

Cultural routines, such as reading and writing direction (script direction), channel attention orientation. Depending on one's native language habit, attention is biased from left-to-right (LR) or from right-to-left (RL). Here, we further document this bias, as it interacts with the spatial directionality that grounds time concepts. We used a…

Lockwood has argued that taking a set-oriented perspective is critical for successful combinatorial enumeration. To date, however, the research literature has not yet captured the cognitive processes involved in taking such a perspective. In this theoretical paper, we elaborate the constructs of spatial structuring and spatial-numerical linked…

Background: There is a growing evidence base for the importance of spatial reasoning for the development of mathematics. However, the extent to which this translates into practice is unknown. Aims: We aimed to understand practitioners' perspectives on their understanding of spatial reasoning, the extent to which they recognize and implement…

This paper presents a review of the literature on the use of commercially available city building games (CBGs), such as SimCity and Cities: Skylines, as learning tools in classroom instruction. Given the ubiquity and popularity of digital games, particularly among young people, instructors in a variety of fields and at various academic levels have…

Natural environments provide a rich spatiotemporal context that allows for visual objects to be differentiated based on different types of information: their absolute or relative spatial or temporal coordinates, or their ordinal positions in a spatial or temporal sequence. Here, we investigated which spatial and temporal properties are…

Spatial reasoning is one of the most challenging skills to master in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This article reports the results of a teaching intervention that involved using wooden blocks to enhance the development of spatial reasoning in an undergraduate-level introductory geology course. Wooden blocks…

Relying on shared tasks and stimuli to conduct research can enhance the replicability of findings and allow a community of researchers to collect large data sets across multiple experiments. This approach is particularly relevant for experiments in spatial navigation, which often require the development of unfamiliar large-scale virtual…

In light of the known visuoperceptual strengths and altered language skills in autism, we investigated the impact of problem content (semantic/visuospatial) combined with complexity and presence of lures on fluid reasoning in 43 autistic and 41 typical children (6-13 years old). Increased complexity and presence of lures diminished performance,…

In this article, the author describes how an "I do, we do, you do" scaffolded approach for explicit instruction can be utilized to teach map skills to students in kindergarten through grade 2. She argues that classroom teachers who are familiar with explicit instruction may frequently use the model for reading and math instruction while…

This paper is based on an experiment conducted in 2019 at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, as part of a post-graduate research course, that aimed to reflect on the methodologies used by geographers when (re)searching (for) emotions. This methodological question is crucial since it is partly because of the difficulty of finding relevant tools…

Studies have demonstrated that visual-spatial skills correlate with student performance and success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The ability to reason with spatial information is essential for conceptual subjects like chemistry, a deep understanding of which requires dealing with the invisible world of atoms and molecules…

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…

Visual representations of information are prevalent in many academic domains, and students must learn how to interpret and use these visual representations. How do students acquire this representational competence? Past work has focused on the role of explicit instruction. In this work, we consider another route for acquiring representational…

Spatial navigation is a fundamental cognitive function essential for daily life. Navigation skill assessment predominantly relies on self-reports, with varying accounts regarding their validity. The current study aimed to determine whether performance on an objective visual scene memory recognition ability task could serve as a valid predictor of…