Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Early Education for Spatial Intelligence: Why, What, and How

Early Education for Spatial Intelligence: Why, What, and How Spatial representation and thinking have evolutionary importance for any mobile organism. In addition, they help reasoning in domains that are not obviously spatial, for example, through the use of graphs and diagrams. This article reviews the literature suggesting that mental spatial transformation abilities, while present in some precursory form in infants, toddlers, and preschool children, also undergo considerable development and show important individual differences, which are malleable. These findings provide the basis for thinking about how to promote spatial thinking in preschools, at home, and in children's play. Integrating spatial content into formal and informal instruction could not only improve spatial functioning in general but also reduce differences related to gender and socioeconomic status that may impede full participation in a technological society. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Mind, Brain, and Education Wiley

Early Education for Spatial Intelligence: Why, What, and How

Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/early-education-for-spatial-intelligence-why-what-and-how-pBaNzQ6iW1
Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2010 the Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
ISSN
1751-2271
eISSN
1751-228X
DOI
10.1111/j.1751-228X.2010.01089.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Spatial representation and thinking have evolutionary importance for any mobile organism. In addition, they help reasoning in domains that are not obviously spatial, for example, through the use of graphs and diagrams. This article reviews the literature suggesting that mental spatial transformation abilities, while present in some precursory form in infants, toddlers, and preschool children, also undergo considerable development and show important individual differences, which are malleable. These findings provide the basis for thinking about how to promote spatial thinking in preschools, at home, and in children's play. Integrating spatial content into formal and informal instruction could not only improve spatial functioning in general but also reduce differences related to gender and socioeconomic status that may impede full participation in a technological society.

Journal

Mind, Brain, and Education – Wiley

Published: Sep 1, 2010

References

  • The role of self‐produced movement and visual tracking in infant spatial orientation.
    Acredolo, Acredolo; Adams, Adams; Goodwyn, Goodwyn
  • Bridging reality to virtual reality: Investigating gender effect and student engagement on learning through video game play in an elementary school classroom.
    Annetta, Annetta; Mangrum, Mangrum; Holmes, Holmes; Collazo, Collazo; Cheng, Cheng
  • The role of experience in spatial test performance: A meta‐analysis.
    Baenninger, Baenninger; Newcombe, Newcombe
  • Locomotor status and the development of spatial search skills.
    Bai, Bai; Bertenthal, Bertenthal
  • Effect of self‐initiated locomotion on infant search activity.
    Benson, Benson; Uzgiris, Uzgiris
  • Mental rotation: Effects of stimulus complexity and familiarity.
    Bethell‐Fox, Bethell‐Fox; Shepard, Shepard
  • The effects of infant media usage: What do we know and what should we learn?
    Christakis, Christakis
  • The time required to prepare for a rotated stimulus.
    Cooper, Cooper; Shepard, Shepard
  • An fMRI study of imagined self‐rotation.
    Creem, Creem; Downs, Downs; Wraga, Wraga; Harrington, Harrington; Proffitt, Proffitt; Downs, Downs
  • An information‐processing analysis of a Piagetian imagery task.
    Dean, Dean; Harvey, Harvey
  • Computer experience and gender differences in undergraduate mental rotation performance.
    DeLisi, DeLisi; Cammarano, Cammarano
  • The importance of gesture in children's spatial reasoning.
    Ehrlich, Ehrlich; Levine, Levine; Goldin‐Meadow, Goldin‐Meadow
  • Young children's awareness of their mental activity: The case of mental rotation.
    Estes, Estes
  • Motor processes in children's mental rotation.
    Frick, Frick; Daum, Daum; Walser, Walser; Mast, Mast
  • Effects of action on children's and adults' mental imagery.
    Frick, Frick; Daum, Daum; Wilson, Wilson; Wilkening, Wilkening
  • Motor processes in children's imagery: The case of mental rotation of hands.
    Funk, Funk; Brugger, Brugger; Wilkening, Wilkening
  • Skill formation and the economics of investing in disadvantaged children.
    Heckman, Heckman
  • A dissociation between mental rotation and perspective‐taking spatial abilities.
    Hegarty, Hegarty; Waller, Waller
  • What is improved if a mental rotation task is repeated—the efficiency of memory access, or the speed of a transformation routine?
    Heil, Heil; Rösler, Rösler; Link, Link; Bajric, Bajric
  • The structure of individual differences in the cognitive abilities of children and chimpanzees.
    Herrmann, Herrmann; Hernández‐Lloreda, Hernández‐Lloreda; Call, Call; Hare, Hare; Tomasello, Tomasello
  • Dynamic mental representation in infancy.
    Hespos, Hespos; Rochat, Rochat
  • Environmental input and cognitive growth: A study using time‐period comparisons.
    Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher; Levine, Levine; Vevea, Vevea
  • Spatial scaling in young children.
    Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher; Newcombe, Newcombe; Vasilyeva, Vasilyeva
  • Mental rotation and the perspective problem.
    Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher; Presson, Presson
  • The coding and transformation of spatial information.
    Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher; Presson, Presson
  • Developing symbolic capacity one step at a time.
    Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher; Vasilyeva, Vasilyeva; Newcombe, Newcombe; Duffy, Duffy
  • Imagining a way out of the gravity bias: Preschoolers can visualize the solution to a spatial problem.
    Joh, Joh; Jaswal, Jaswal; Keen, Keen
  • Mental object rotation and egocentric body transformation: Two dissociable processes?
    Jola, Jola; Mast, Mast
  • Object name learning and object perception: A deficit in late talkers.
    Jones, Jones; Smith, Smith
  • Sources of age differences in speed of processing.
    Kail, Kail
  • The generality of working memory capacity: A latent‐variable approach to verbal and visuospatial memory span and reasoning.
    Kane, Kane; Hambrick, Hambrick; Tuholski, Tuholski; Wilhelm, Wilhelm; Payne, Payne; Engle, Engle
  • Mental rotation of objects versus hands: Neural mechanisms revealed by positron emission tomography.
    Kosslyn, Kosslyn; Digirolamo, Digirolamo; Thompson, Thompson; Alpert, Alpert
  • Intuitive physics in action and judgment: The development of knowledge about projectile motion.
    Krist, Krist; Fieberg, Fieberg; Wilkening, Wilkening
  • The influence of long‐term practice on mental rotation of 3‐D objects.
    Leone, Leone; Taine, Taine; Droulez, Droulez
  • Early sex differences in spatial skill.
    Levine, Levine; Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher; Taylor, Taylor; Langrock, Langrock
  • Socioeconomic status modifies the sex difference in spatial skill.
    Levine, Levine; Vasilyeva, Vasilyeva; Lourenco, Lourenco; Newcombe, Newcombe; Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher
  • Development of kinetic images: When does the child first represent movement in mental images?
    Marmor, Marmor
  • Mental rotation and number conservation: Are they related?
    Marmor, Marmor
  • CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project: Standing on the shoulders of the giants of psychometric intelligence research.
    McGrew, McGrew
  • Mental rotation in human infants: A sex difference.
    Moore, Moore; Johnson, Johnson
  • The paradox of proximity in early spatial representation.
    Newcombe, Newcombe
  • The nativist‐empiricist controversy in the context of recent research on spatial and quantitative development.
    Newcombe, Newcombe
  • Children's early ability to solve perspective‐taking problems.
    Newcombe, Newcombe; Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher
  • The development of spatial location coding: Place learning and dead reckoning in the second and third years.
    Newcombe, Newcombe; Huttenlocher, Huttenlocher; Drummey, Drummey; Wiley, Wiley
  • Tracking and inferring spatial rotation by children and great apes.
    Okamoto‐Barth, Okamoto‐Barth; Call, Call
  • Fitting objects into holes: On the development of spatial cognition skills.
    Örnkloo, Örnkloo; Von Hofsten, Von Hofsten
  • Mental rotation task performance as a function of age and training.
    Platt, Platt; Cohen, Cohen
  • A sex difference in mental rotation in young infants.
    Quinn, Quinn; Liben, Liben
  • Imagery, action, and young children's spatial orientation: It's not being there that counts, it's what one has in mind.
    Rieser, Rieser; Garing, Garing; Young, Young
  • Adult‐child interaction in children's learning from “Sesame Street.”
    Reiser, Reiser; Tessmer, Tessmer; Phelps, Phelps
  • Tracking and anticipation of invisible spatial transformation by 4‐ to 8‐month‐old infants.
    Rochat, Rochat; Hespos, Hespos
  • When is a triangle not a triangle? Young children's developing concepts of geometric shape.
    Satlow, Satlow; Newcombe, Newcombe
  • Importance of assessing spatial ability in intellectually talented young adolescents: A 20‐year longitudinal study.
    Shea, Shea; Lubinski, Lubinski; Benbow, Benbow
  • Mental rotation of three‐dimensional objects.
    Shepard, Shepard; Metzler, Metzler
  • Young children's spontaneous use of geometry in maps.
    Shusterman, Shusterman; Lee, Lee; Spelke, Spelke
  • Young children's representations of spatial and functional relations between objects.
    Shutts, Shutts; Örnkloo, Örnkloo; Von Hofsten, Von Hofsten; Keen, Keen; Spelke, Spelke
  • Learning to recognize objects.
    Smith, Smith
  • From fragments to geometric shape: Changes in visual object recognition between 18 and 24 months.
    Smith, Smith
  • Effect of brief training on sex‐related differences in visual‐spatial skill.
    Stericker, Stericker; LeVesconte, LeVesconte
  • Parental guidance in preschoolers' understanding of spatial‐graphic representations.
    Szechter, Szechter; Liben, Liben
  • Durable and generalized effects of spatial experience on mental rotation: Gender differences in growth patterns.
    Terlecki, Terlecki; Newcombe, Newcombe; Little, Little
  • The medium can obscure the message: Young children's understanding of video.
    Troseth, Troseth; DeLoache, DeLoache
  • Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance.
    Wai, Wai; Lubinski, Lubinski; Benbow, Benbow
  • Process generalization and the prediction of performance on mental imagery tasks.
    Wallace, Wallace; Hofelich, Hofelich
  • Multiple intelligences, the Mozart effect, and emotional intelligence: A critical review.
    Waterhouse, Waterhouse
  • Updating displays after imagined object and viewer rotations.
    Wraga, Wraga; Creem, Creem; Proffitt, Proffitt
  • Training generalized spatial skills.
    Wright, Wright; Thompson, Thompson; Ganis, Ganis; Newcombe, Newcombe; Kosslyn, Kosslyn
  • Mental spatial transformations of objects and perspective.
    Zacks, Zacks; Mires, Mires; Tversky, Tversky; Hazeltine, Hazeltine
  • Imagined transformations of bodies: An fMRI investigation.
    Zacks, Zacks; Rypma, Rypma; Gabrieli, Gabrieli; Tversky, Tversky; Glover, Glover
  • Associations between media viewing and language development in children under age 2 years.
    Zimmerman, Zimmerman; Christakis, Christakis; Meltzoff, Meltzoff