ERIC Number: EJ1317434
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0300-4430
EISSN: N/A
Individual Differences in Young Children's Visual-Spatial Abilities
Kotsopoulos, Donna; Makosz, Samantha; Zambrzycka, Joanna; Dickson, Brandon A.
Early Child Development and Care, v191 n14 p2246-2259 2021
An enduring challenge in visual-spatial research has been to identify the factors contributing to individual differences in ability. This research investigated the overall, verbal, and nonverbal visual-spatial ability of 61 (34 boys) three- to five-year-olds (M[subscript age] = 57.3 months; SD = 7.9) and the following factors known to be related to visual-spatial ability: grade, sex, socio-economic status, math and spatial activity engagement at home, parental mental rotation, quantitative reasoning, intelligence, and working memory. Results revealed quantitative reasoning and general intelligence were an important predictor of overall and nonverbal visual-spatial ability. Mathematics activities in the home predicted children's verbal visual-spatial ability but not after accounting for various cognitive factors. Given the highly malleable nature of visual-spatial ability, we anticipated a grade effect; however, this was not found. Older children did not outperform the younger children suggesting a possible 'kindergarten "in"-effect' whereby schooling did not result in visual-spatial learning over time.
Descriptors: Individual Differences, Spatial Ability, Visual Perception, Preschool Children, Socioeconomic Status, Predictor Variables, Age Differences, Kindergarten, Verbal Ability, Nonverbal Ability, Gender Differences, Intelligence, Mathematics Skills, Parent Child Relationship, Thinking Skills, Short Term Memory, Family Relationship, Cognitive Ability, Intelligence Tests, Parent Attitudes, Correlation, Task Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A