Developing spatial cognitive skills among middle school students

Reducing the sex difference in math anxiety: The role of spatial processing ability

“…Specifically, spatial training, such as playing action video games (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007), has been shown to reduce the sex differences in spatial processing in only a few short training sessions. Spatial processing training has been shown to improve spatial skills (Lohman & Nichols, 1990;Sorby, 2009), and, importantly, spatial skills training can even increase performance in academic subject areas. For example, Sorby (2009) found that spatial training was associated with higher grades in subsequent calculus and physics courses (see also Blasko & Holliday-Darr, 2010).…”

“…Spatial processing training has been shown to improve spatial skills (Lohman & Nichols, 1990;Sorby, 2009), and, importantly, spatial skills training can even increase performance in academic subject areas. For example, Sorby (2009) found that spatial training was associated with higher grades in subsequent calculus and physics courses (see also Blasko & Holliday-Darr, 2010). Given these promising results, the training of spatial skills for both men and women with low spatial processing ability may represent an exciting and effective intervention for the prevention and remediation of math anxiety and math performance.…”

The Development of Spatial Skills in Elementary School Students

“…Although SES and gender cannot be manipulated via experimental work we can look at their impact of instructional programs designed to improve spatial skills. Research by Sorby () suggests that spatial interventions are particularly effective for girls, suggesting that gender differences can decrease in response to treatment. As such, gender differences in spatial task performance may reflect differences in experience, more so than biology.…”

Harnessing Spatial Thinking to Support Stem Learning

“…Another use of the workbook was to improve the spatial skills of university physics students, which led to better grades in physics (Miller and Halpern, 2013), although the effect showed fade-out on follow-up. Thus, the workbook improves spatial skills for adolescent students as well as university students (Sorby, 2009b). However, at this point, there is conflicting evidence regarding whether such improvement affects subsequent STEM achievement.…”