Evidence for a unitary structure of spatial cognition beyond general intelligence

Abstract

Performance in everyday spatial orientation tasks (e.g. map reading and navigation) has been considered functionally separate from performance on more abstract object-based spatial abilities (e.g. mental rotation and visualization). However, evidence remains scarce and unsystematic. With a novel gamified battery, we assessed six tests of spatial orientation in a virtual environment and examined their association with ten object-based spatial tests, as well as their links to general cognitive ability (g). We further estimated the role of genetic and environmental factors in underlying variation and covariation in these spatial tests.Participants (N = 2,660) were part of the Twins Early Development Study, aged 19 to 22. The 6 tests of spatial orientation clustered into a single 'Navigation' factor that was 64% heritable. Examining the structure of spatial ability across all 16 tests, three factors emerged: Navigation, Object Manipulation and Visualization. These, in turn, loaded strongly onto a general factor of Spatial Ability, which was highly heritable (84%). A large portion (45%) of this high heritability was independent of g. The results from this most comprehensive investigation of spatial abilities to date point towards the existence of a common genetic network that supports all spatial abilities.

Measuring Spatial Ability for Talent Identification, Educational Assessment, and Support: Evidence from Adolescents with High Achievement in Science, Arts, and Sports

“…e unifactorial structure of spatial ability was further demonstrated in another study that examined 16 measures of spatial ability in a UK sample (Malanchini et al, 2019). In this study, three factors emerged: navigation, object manipulation, and visualization; these in turn loaded strongly on a general factor of spatial ability.…”

“…However, several recent studies (Esipenko et al, 2018;Likhanov et al, 2018;Malanchini et al, 2019;Rimfeld et al, 2017) showed that spatial ability might have a unifactorial rather than multidimensional structure. For example, research has shown that the 10 spatial ability tests which form a King's Challenge test battery (Rimfeld et al, 2017), constitute a single factor in British and Russian samples, explaining 42 and 40 percent of overall variance in spatial ability measures, respectively (Likhanov et al, 2018;Rimfeld et al, 2017).…”

Educational attainment polygenic score predicts inhibitory control and academic skills in early and middle childhood

“…56 Although this model has not been tested using PGS, researchers using quantitative genetic methods found that a shared genetic factor accounted for the association between various measures of self-regulation and academic outcomes. 57,58 Genetic influences are not deterministic, as many children with a low EA PGS perform well academically. Instead, associations between PGS and outcomes of interest reflect complex transactions between genes and the environment.…”