Poster #27 - Differences in Spatial Visualization Among Rural and Urban Children

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Child development researchers have consistently found that spatial visualization abilities, on average, differ among sexes with females lagging behind their male counterparts (e.g. Linn & Petersen, 1985; Tartre, 1990; Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). This difference is thought to be related to cultural and environmental factors and not genetic differences. However, most research has focused on urban populations when studying this relationship, with little work done that involves rural students. Rural populations may have greater opportunities to develop spatial skills through their environment (outdoor play, navigating, stay-at-home parent, etc) compared to their urban counterparts (e.g. Berry, 1966). Therefore, the research presented here attempts to uncover if spatial visualization skills differ between students in rural and urban populations.
The purpose of the research presented here was to determine if differences exist between rural and urban middle school students when taking a spatial visualization test. Due to environmental factors, we hypothesize that rural students, on average, will perform better on spatial visualization tests compared to urban students. We have defined “rural” as locations where the population is less than 50,000 residents.
Spatial visualization tests were administered by grade 7 middle school math and science teachers during the last semester of the academic year. In total, over 3,000 students participated with roughly an equal distribution between male and female students (1545 vs. 1467) and rural and urban populations (1610 vs. 1402). The spatial visualization test included questions from the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotation (PSVT:R), the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT), the Mental Cutting Task (MCT), and the Modified Lappan Test (LAP) (Bennett, Seashore, & Wesman, 1973; CEEB, 1939; Guay, 1977; Lappan, 1981). Tests were scored by giving correct responses 1 point and incorrect responses 0 points. The scores were then used to perform statistical analysis.
Using an independent sample t-test, results show statistical differences between rural and urban students on the four grade 7 tests with rural students, on average, performing better on all of the spatial visualization tests compared to urban students (Table 1).
Effect sizes for the four tests were small (.05 < ƞ < .134). Overall, our hypothesis that rural students perform better on spatial visualization tests was accepted. This finding could suggest that living in a rural location contributes to better spatial visualization skills.
Future work includes collecting data from a larger sample size (~10,000 students, underway) and analyzing the data based on rural and urban populations in conjunction with socioeconomic status (SES) and sex. Both sex and SES have been shown to influence students’ spatial visualization abilities with females and low SES students performing lower on these tests compared to males and medium-to-high SES students (Levine, Vasilyeve, Lourenco, Newcombe, & Huttenlocher, 2005; Linn & Petersen, 1985; Tartre, 1990; Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995).

Authors

• Grace Panther, University of Cincinnati
  Presenting Author

• Sheryl Sorby, University of Cincinnati
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kinnari Atit, University of California, Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Norma Veurink, Michigan Tech
  Non-Presenting Author

• David H Uttal, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason Powers, University of Limerick
  Non-Presenting Author

• Logan Fiorella, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Camille Msall, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author