Poster #15 - Assessing Individual Differences in Toddlers’ Spatial Cognition Using a Modified Test of Spatial Assembly (TOSA)

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Rudimentary spatial abilities are present in infancy and develop over time to include more complex skills. Toddlers often engage in various spatially relevant activities (e.g., block building and puzzles), however, measuring individual differences in spatial skills in this age group is challenging due to toddlers’ limited receptive and productive vocabulary, fine motor skills, and a general lack of age-appropriate assessments. In this study, we adapted items from the Test of Spatial Assembly (TOSA; Verdine et al., 2014), previously used with 4-and 5-year-olds, for use with 2-and 3-year-olds to determine if this measure can successfully capture spatial cognition in toddlers and individual differences therein without extensive need for spatial vocabulary or general language. Importantly, we focused on two-dimensional items that may be less dependent on children’s familiarity with Lego blocks.

Participants consisted of 58 children followed longitudinally from age 2 (M=31.2 months, SD= 2.28, range=27.6 - 36.6) at Time 1 (T1), to age 3 (M=45 months, SD= 3, range=40-51) at Time 2 (T2). At each time point, children were presented with three images and asked to copy the models using the corresponding set of magnetic shapes (see Figure 1). All testing occurred via videoconferencing. A modified coding scheme inspired by Verdine and colleagues (2014) was employed to score children's performance. Critically, like the approach used to score the original TOSA, children whose designs did not match the sample 100% could earn partial credit in order to evaluate nuanced aspects of spatial assembly and track individual differences. Specifically, scoring consisted of four scaled subdimensions: location, proximity, horizontal/vertical alignment (HV), and rotation.

At age 2, across all three trials children scored highest on proximity (M=2.38, SD=.8, Range=0-3), followed by location (M=1.28, SD=.85, Range 0-3), then HV (M=1.22, SD=.8, Range=0-3), and lowest on rotation (M=1.12, SD=.8, Range=0-3). At age 3, children continued to score highest on proximity (M=2.50, SD=.53, Range=0-3), followed by HV (M=2.13, SD=.68, Range 0-3), then location (M=1.60, SD=.79, Range=0-3), and again lowest on rotation (M=1.36, SD=.84, Range=0-3; see Figure 2). In addition, a significant increase in scores from age 2 to 3 was found for location, t(57) = 2.1, p<.05, HV, t(57) = 7.6, p <.001, and rotation, t(57) = 2.5, p <.05, but not proximity. These findings suggest that toddlers understand the concept of spatial proximity between objects from a very young age and that the concept of rotation, or how an object needs to be oriented in space, is more difficult. In addition, toddlers’ understanding of location, i.e., an object’s placement above, below, to the left, or to the right of another object, the horizontal and vertical alignment of objects with respect to each other, and rotation improve from age 2 to 3.

Authors

• Danielle S Fox, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Heather J. Bachman, University of Pittsburgh

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh

• Melissa E Libertus, University of Pittsburgh