Spatial Skills, Reasoning, and Mathematics

Abstract

Chapter for the Cambridge Handbook on Cognition and EducationModern technological societies are built on a foundation of mathematics. We could not have extensive trade without book-keeping-we would be stuck with a barter system. We could not build our long bridges without calculation --we would still be relying on ferries to cross bodies of water. We have made impressive improvements in agricultural science in the past century based in part on experiments using the statistics of "split plots". The examples could be multiplied but the lesson is clear. Given the importance of numeracy, there is good reason for educational systems to strive to teach mathematics effectively. Even though many children in contemporary schools succeed in learning to calculate, many others struggle or progress slowly, and even more never achieve the levels required for full participation in our technological society. There are many reasons for this situation, and many proposed remedies. One potential way to improve mathematics education involves harvesting our growing understanding of how human minds and brains process quantitative information, and how these processes develop.

Math matters: A novel, brief educational intervention decreases whole number bias when reasoning about COVID-19.

“…An additional factor that was related to health-related math outcomes was gender: men were more likely than women to correctly answer the pretest health-related math problem ( OR = 1.98, 95% CI [1.59, 2.48]), possibly because men have been shown to have more precise magnitude understanding than women (Hutchison et al, 2019; Rivers et al, 2021; Thompson & Opfer, 2008). Future research should assess whether these gender differences in magnitude understanding in health-related math contexts are the product of differential spatial abilities (Newcombe et al, 2019; Rivers et al, 2021) and/or formal and informal learning experiences, such as early math and spatial talk in the home environment (Halpern et al, 2007; Levine et al, 2010; Pruden et al, 2011).…”

Spatial Abilities for Architecture: Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Assessment With Novel and Existing Spatial Ability Tests

“…Spatial thinking goes beyond architecture, as it has been shown to be a marker for success in several domains of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) ( Wai et al, 2009 ; Uttal et al, 2013b ). Psychological research on spatial thinking abilities has indeed been extensive in fields such as engineering, chemistry and mathematics ( Sorby, 2007 ; Stieff et al, 2012 ; Newcombe et al, 2019 ). In the present research, we studied individual differences in spatial thinking abilities of architecture students at various points during their studies.…”

Fathers’ and mothers’ praise and spatial language during play with first graders: Patterns of interaction and relations to math achievement.

“…In the area of motivational support, we focused on parents’ praise, which has been shown to relate to students’ later motivation and achievement across academic domains (e.g., Gunderson et al., 2013, 2018). In the area of cognitive support, we focused on parents’ spatial language, which has been shown to relate to students’ spatial skills (e.g., Pruden et al., 2011), which in turn relate to later math achievement (Newcombe et al., 2019). We examined these two aspects of parental support simultaneously in the same interactions and asked whether parents’ spatial language and praise differ by task type and child sex and whether parents’ spatial language and praise have additive, or potentially multiplicative, effects on children’s development.…”