3-133 - Associations Between Space and Number Across Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Spatial thinking predicts success in many science and technical disciplines (Wai, Lubinski & Benbow 2009), with specific associations between children’s spatial skills and their mathematical achievement (for an overview, see Newcombe, Möhring, & Frick, 2018). However, the majority of studies have investigated this relation using small cross-sectional samples. Longitudinal approaches, evidence from large samples, and training studies are relatively rare. The present symposium will include four presentations that begin to fill this gap and that deepen our understanding of relations between space and mathematics. Study I investigates relations between spatial skills and later symbolic numeracy skills using a longitudinal approach. Study II uses a large, representative sample and examines how contributions of spatial skills to mathematical achievement change across development. Study III trains children’s spatial skills using instructional videos with the goal of improving children’s mathematical performance. Study IV uses a spatial visualization intervention and evaluates the efficacy of this intervention on children’s spatial and mathematical skills. In sum, these studies focus on similar research questions, but test different age groups, ranging from preschoolers to young adults, and use a wide range of methodological approaches. An integration of these findings will help to understand the stability and developmental change of relations between space and mathematics and offer crucial insights into training tools that effectively improve spatial and mathematical skills.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chairs

• Nora S. Newcombe, Temple University

• Wenke Mohring, University of Basel

Individual Presentations

• Longitudinal Relations Among Spatial and Numerical Skills in Pre-k to Fourth Grades - Presenting Author: Elizabeth Gunderson, Temple University

• Age-Dependent Contributions of Executive Functions and Visual-Spatial Skills to Mathematical Achievement - Presenting Author: Wenke Mohring, University of Basel; Non-Presenting Author: Tobias Kahl, University of Basel; Non-Presenting Author: Robin Segerer, University of Basel; Non-Presenting Author: Alexander Grob, University of Basel

• Brain Space: Improving Spatial and Mathematical Thinking with Instructional Videos - Presenting Author: Katie A. Gilligan, UCL Institute of Education; Non-Presenting Author: Michael S. C. Thomas, University of London; Non-Presenting Author: Emily K. Farran, University College London

• Effects of a Spatial Visualisation Training Program on Students’ Spatial Thinking and Mathematics Performance - Presenting Author: Thomas Lowrie, University of Canberra