Relationships between Visual Figure Discrimination, Verbal Abilities, and Gender

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between verbal thinking and performance on visual figure discrimination tasks from a Vygotskian perspective in a large varied adult sample (N = 428). A test designed to assess the structure of word meanings (ie tendency to think in 'everyday' or 'scientific' concepts as distinguished by Vygotsky) together with two contour picture tasks was presented. Visual tasks were a modified version of Poppelreuter's overlapping figures and a picture depicting a meaningful scene. On both tasks concrete objects and abstract meaningless shapes had to be identified. In addition to relationships between visual task performance and word meaning structure, the effects of the meaningful scene and relations with gender were examined. The results confirmed the expected relation between word meaning structure and visual performance. Furthermore, they suggested a specific effect of the meaningful whole and a male advantage, especially for the first task in which women seemed to benefit less from advanced word meaning structure.

Recall Accuracy in Children: Age vs. Conceptual Thinking

“…This idea is consistent with the theoretical framework on conceptual thinking. For example, complex visuospatial abilities are highly related to the development of logical thinking (see Tammik and Toomela, 2013 ; Toomela et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Investigative interviews involve systematically gathering detailed, accurate accounts of a situation or event (Powell et al, 2005;St-Yves, 2014). It is known that children are more susceptible to suggestive questioning tactics than adults (Ceci and Friedman, 2000;Melnyk et al, 2007).…”

“…Features of logical thinking correspond with cognitive abilities said to be crucial for accurate eyewitness accounts (Lindsay and Johnson, 1987 ); namely, perceiving and comprehending the event, retaining representations of the perception, retrieving relevant information, and discriminating accurate details. It has been shown that more dominant logical word meaning structure is related to better visual-spatial abilities (Tammik and Toomela, 2013 ; Toomela et al, 2020 ).…”

The relationship between visual perception and word meaning structure: an explorative study

“…It has been shown that word meaning structure is associated with visu o spatial abilities. Recent studies have indicated that there is a relationship between dominant logical thought and visuospatial abilities (Tammik and Toomela 2013;Toomela et al 2019). These findings suggest that analysis of visuospatial sensory information is semiotically mediated.…”

“…The development of logical concepts allows an individual to mentally analyse sensory information in a more abstract way (Toomela et al 2019). Prior studies have examined the relationship between dominant logical word meaning structure, discrimination, and mental rotation (Tammik and Toomela 2013;Toomela et al 2019). The findings indicate that better performance in visuospatial tasks is related to more dominant logical thought.…”