A self-discovery training program completed by 96 female and 84 male undergraduates was effective in eliminating gender differences on a task involving drawing water levels and improving females' knowledge of the physical principle involved. These results are consistent with an experiential component to gender differences on spatial tasks. (SLD)

When adult versions of tests of spatial ability were modified and administered to 94 boys and 99 girls in Norway, results indicated that spatial ability is a more unified trait in boys than in girls, in whom spatial abilities are more heterogeneously organized. (SLD)

Discusses research in spatial cognition that uses computer-simulated three dimensional environments and evaluates the use of virtual desktop environments by replicating an experiment which was formerly done in a laboratory or real world setting. Investigates the role of landmarks when acquiring route knowledge in a system of paths. (Author/LRW)

Had children draw two blocks arranged in depth, and then moved either child or array and had children draw what was then a left-right arrangement; the transformation was then reversed for a final drawing. Found that when children moved to a new standpoint, there was a significant increase in vertical portrayal (as depth portrayal) between first…

Four studies of the factorial validity of the Spatial Learning Ability Test (SLAT), involving 431 undergraduates, were summarized to elaborate nomothetic span. These studies support the SLAT as a spatial processing measure. The SLAT, compared to a test with the same item type, was a more pure measure of spatial ability. (SLD)

Investigated the relationship between sex hormones and spatial performance among adolescents treated with sex steroids for delayed puberty. Found that spatial performance varied according to gender but did not vary with levels of actively circulating sex steroids. Reviewed physiological mechanisms, developmental periods, and past empirical work…

Adults over 50 (n=77) completed Piaget's Three Mountains Task focused on extrapolating others' viewpoints. Performance significantly decreased and egocentric responses significantly increased with age. Three kinds of errors occurred: miscalculations, egocentrism, or complete breakdown of information processing due to task overload. (Contains 19…

Research shows that young children are able to draw simple maps of their neighborhoods and to recognize features on aerial photographs. Among younger children there is little difference between the mapping ability of boys and girls, but as they grow older, boys consistently perform better in map drawing and map reading. (Author/SK)

Two experiments with second graders, sixth graders, college students, and mildly retarded persons showed that children and mildly retarded persons process spatial location information as well as do college students. Some, but not all, of the more severely retarded persons had deficits in processing memory for location. (Author/DB)

Studies the relationship between timing of puberty and spatial ability in 53 undergraduate women. Results do not show evidence for greater spatial ability on the part of those who have late maturation. (RJC)

Two studies with 28 Boston College undergraduates tested the hypothesis that people who report a poor sense of direction (SOD) have an impaired ability to use spatial information in an abstract or symbolic way. The hypothesis was not supported. Poor SOD correlates to a mental egocentrism in self-to-environmental-object relations. (TJH)

Assessed sex differences in performance on the subtests of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children using more than 2,500 children ages 2-1/2 to 12-1/2 years old. Results confirmed previous research with female superiority on short-term memory tasks and male superiority on spatial-visualization skills. (Author/ABL)

A modified Visual Expectation Paradigm assessed the role of picture content in the spatiotemporal expectations of 80 infants. Stable picture content information facilitated formation of expectations about when and where pictures would appear. Two month olds' reactions were consistently slower than those of three month olds.(LB)

Two experiments are presented that investigate the processing of pronominal reference in American Sign Language. Experiment one indicated that pronoun activation was not immediate, and there was no strong evidence for the inhibition of nonreferents. Experiment two was designed to investigate whether the pronoun also activated a representation of…

Three experiments involving 107 adults who performed mental rotation tasks explored how location information is incorporated into image representation. Results suggest that image is coded retinotopically in image representations and that there is no spatiotropic transform in the early stages of visual processing. (SLD)