We investigated mental rotation in children by systematically varying the adult cube aggregate's set size, rotation angle, and picture/depth plane rotations in a new test. Eighty 4- to 11-year-old mainly middle-class children (British Indian and British African majority and white minority; 40 girls and 40 boys) were assessed using the new…

Understanding fraction magnitudes is foundational for later math achievement. To represent a fraction x/y, children are often taught to use "partitioning": Break the whole into y parts and shade in x parts. Past research has shown that partitioning on number lines supports children's fraction magnitude knowledge more than partitioning on…

Toddlers' understanding of object rotation was investigated using a multimethod approach. Participants were 44 toddlers between 22 and 38 months of age. In an eye-tracking task, they observed a shape that rotated and disappeared briefly behind an occluder. In an object-fitting task, they rotated wooden blocks and fit them through apertures.…

Past research has shown that children's mental rotation skills are malleable and can be improved through action experience--physically rotating objects--or gesture experience--showing how objects could rotate (e.g., Frick, Ferrara, & Newcombe, 2013; Goldin-Meadow et al., 2012; Levine, Goldin-Meadow, Carlson, & Hemani-Lopez, 2018). These…

Recently, there has been increasing evidence showing that males estimate whole numbers more accurately than females on the number line. However, relatively little is known about what factors contribute to this gender gap. The current study explored potential mediators of the gender difference in number line estimation, including spatial skills and…

The longitudinal relations of domain-general and numerical skills at ages 6-7 years to 3 cognitive domains of arithmetic learning, namely knowing (written computation), applying (arithmetic word problems), and reasoning (arithmetic reasoning) at age 11, were examined for a representative sample of 378 Finnish children. The results showed that…

Despite the large body of knowledge on adults suggesting that 2 basic types of mental spatial transformation--namely, object-based and egocentric perspective transformations--are dissociable and specialized for different situations, there is much less research investigating the developmental aspects of such spatial transformation systems. Here, an…

Using the concepts of sensory and affective experience, this work relates the concepts of socialization and cognitive development to the embodiment of gender in the human infant. Evidence obtained from biweekly observations from 30 children and their mothers observed from age 3 months to age 12 months revealed measurable sex-related differences in…

The study investigates age-related effects across the adult life span on spatial abilities (testing subabilities based on a distinction between spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perspective taking) and spatial self-assessments. The sample consisted of 454 participants (223 women and 231 men) from 20 to 91 years of age. Results showed…

Children practice their spatial skills when playing with spatial toys, such as construction materials, board games, and puzzles. Sex and SES differences are observed in the engagement in such spatial play activities at home, which relate to individual differences in spatial performance. The current study investigated the effects of explicitly…

It is widely recognized that experience with cognitive tests can influence estimates of cognitive change. Prior research has estimated experience effects at the level of groups by comparing the performance of a group of participants tested for the second time with the performance of a different group of participants at the same age tested for the…

Normative adult age-related decrements are well documented for many diverse forms of effortful cognitive processing. However, it is currently unclear whether each of these decrements reflects a distinct and independent developmental phenomenon, or, in part, a more global phenomenon. A number of studies have recently been published that show…

Children at three age levels (4-6, 7-9, and 10-14 years) performed a reaction-time version of Piaget and Inhelder's rotating squares imagery task and a pivot and shape conservation recognition task. (JMB)

The findings of this study indicated that induced imagery facilitated correct shape reproduction in 8-year-olds better than induced verbalization. (JMB)

Ratings of concreteness and picturability and production data for meaningfulness of 310 words were gathered from sixth-grade children and college students. (JMB)