Researchers disagree not only about the existence or magnitude of sex-related differences in spatial perception, but also about the determinants of such differences. Training in three distinct spatial tasks was provided in an attempt to destablize individual and sex-related differences, while exploring the relative contributions of biological and…

Examines spatial concepts required by young children for the understanding and manipulation of turn commands in Logo, and reviews the literature on children's Logo learning and the psychological-cognitive development of spatial concepts. Geometric concepts, alternative frames of reference, and the use of Turtle graphics are also discussed. (39…

Examines the fallacies about the nature of abilities and learning and about the interaction between sense modalities which follow from the dichotomy in relation to explanations of spatial development in the blind. Suggests that interactions between cognitive and perceptual factors need to be considered to explain more adequately effects of sensory…

Seven-year-olds compared successively presented oblique lines which varied as to their position within a square display and their relation to the diagonal axis of the display. Children apparently encoded lines in terms of position and axis features. They used a categorical spatial representational system to compare oblique lines. (Author/RD)

Six experiments involving 262 children (as young as 16 months and as old as fifth grade) indicate that the basic framework for coding location is present early in life and that later development consists of an increasing ability to impose organization on a broad range of bounded spaces. (SLD)

Four experiments examined sources of gender differences routinely found on the water-level spatial test. Undergraduates' errors offered no evidence that less accurate responses by females than males reflected a less developed Piagetian spatial system, and that females' requisite motor skills were poorer than those of males. (MM)

At age 13, students scoring at the top 0.5% in general intelligence completed the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), Mathematics and Verbal subtests, and the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT) Space Relations (SR) and Mechanical Reasoning (MR) subtests. It appears that spatial ability assessments can complement contemporary talent search procedures.…

Four experiments examined the flexibility and stability with which children and adults organize locations into categories based on their spatiotemporal experience with locations. Seven-, 9-, 11-year-olds, and adults learned the locations of 20 objects in an open, square box. During learning, participants experienced the locations in four…

Studies the ability of 5-month-old infants to recall temporal information and use temporal organization by training them to fixate a hierarchically structured or unstructured sequence of stimuli which appeared in four spatial positions. Results are interpreted within a temporal organizational framework; infants appear to use organization within…

Discusses variables related to task performance in the solution of the water-level problem, where subjects were asked to indicate the water surface orientation in a tilted vessel. Subjects ages 7 to 15 years participated. Suggests that field effects and the kind of rules in use contribute to the differences in performance, which can be shown even…

Tested children 18 months to 4 years for their ability to relocate a hidden object after self-produced movement around an array of 4 locations. Children encountered no specific difficulty in coordinating dimensions, or they solved the task without recourse to such a system. They also appeared to change strategy when the problem requires more…

Studied the relationship of joint mother-child planning before and during tasks, and the ability of four and eight year olds to plan on their own. Found that older children planned more effectively, especially during tasks, and that mothers of younger children concerned themselves with task procedures rather than strategy. (MDM)

This research paper reports on testing the hypothesis that music and spatial task performance are causally related. Two complementary studies are presented that replicate and explore previous findings. One study of college students showed that listening to a Mozart sonata induces subsequent short-term spatial reasoning facilitation and tested the…

The effects of age, task, and egocentric responding on visual-spatial perspective taking were studied among 41 preschool children between 3.0 and 5.9 years of age. Children were individually administered three perspective-taking measures: the upside-down/right-side-up task, a block task, and a picture box task, all previously described in the…

The main thrust of American education has been cognitively oriented. Recent research on the human brain suggests that such orientation is a general function of only one hemisphere of the brain, the left. Because of the close relationships among speech, language, thinking, reasoning, and the higher mental functions, the left brain hemisphere…