Updating the Spatial Activities and Videogame Survey for Use in Development Research

Education Sciences · 2025-09-25 · 1 citations

Childhood experiences and activities, including sports, videogames, and toys, have long been of interest in understanding cognitive development and later individual differences. In particular, the malleability of spatial reasoning suggests that early experiences, including a variety of spatial activities, may have a significant impact on the development of students’ spatial ability skills. In the present study, we sought to update the most widely used spatial activity survey and propose a survey of videogame usage. Both surveys were administered to a large sample of adults with children aged 7 to 14, with a sample (N = 1210) diverse in race, ethnicity, and gender. We explored the survey’s descriptives, scale design, and factor structure to support future use.

Referee report. For: Pre-protocol of the Virtual Spatial Configuration Task (VSCT): A Novel Virtual Reality-Based Tool for Assessing Cognitive Map Formation Abilities [version 1; peer review: 3 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]

Faculty of 1000 Research Ltd · 2025-01-01

Assessing children’s spatial thinking: Insights, challenges, and implications

Advances in child development and behavior · 2025-01-01

The Future of Cognitive Development in Challenging Times

Journal of Cognition and Development · 2025-04-24

Assessing Children's Spatial Thinking: Insights, Challenges, and Implications

2025-07-11 · 1 citations

In the past few decades, interest in children’s spatial thinking has increased substantially, and consequently, interest in spatial assessments for children has also increased. However, there are not many reliable, validated, and widely accessible spatial assessments for this segment of the population, which affects researchers' ability to conduct and interpret spatial thinking research. While some limitations of these tests relate to broader issues with spatial assessments in general (see Uttal et al., 2024), creating assessments that are appropriate for children presents unique challenges. In this chapter, we review the current state of tests of children’s spatial thinking, including mental rotation and perspective-taking. We draw on insights from psychometrics, open science, and cognitive development research. Furthermore, we examine how spatial assessments affect research on the relation between spatial and STEM abilities, particularly research aimed at leveraging spatial thinking through interventions and training that improve children’s spatial skills and, in turn, their STEM performance (i.e., Bruce & Hawes, 2015; Cheng & Mix, 2014; Hawes et al., 2022; Judd & Klingberg, 2021; Mix et al., 2021). Lastly, we outline recommendations for improving these assessments to ultimately improve research and theory creation on the development of spatial thinking.

Looking Ahead: Advancing Measurement and Analysis of the Block Design Test Using Technology and Artificial Intelligence

Journal of Intelligence · 2024-05-22 · 1 citations

The block design test (BDT) has been used for over a century in research and clinical contexts as a measure of spatial cognition, both as a singular ability and as part of more comprehensive intelligence assessment. Traditionally, the BDT has been scored using methods that do not reflect the full potential of individual differences that could be measured by the test. Recent advancements in technology, including eye-tracking, embedded sensor systems, and artificial intelligence, have provided new opportunities to measure and analyze data from the BDT. In this methodological review, we outline the information that BDT can assess, review several recent advancements in measurement and analytic methods, discuss potential future uses of these methods, and advocate for further research using these methods.

Diversifying computer science: An examination of the potential influences of women‐in‐computing groups

Science Education · 2024-02-26 · 16 citations

Abstract The gender imbalance in computer science (CS) is one of the most challenging issues in American education. CS is the only science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field in which women's representation has steadily declined in recent decades. In this study, we explored one potential approach that could be effective in increasing college women's participation in CS: participation in Women‐in‐Computing (WiC) groups. Through participant observation and individual interviews in a WiC group at a major research university, we investigated how students engage in WiC, the impacts of the WiC on identity and belonging, and the challenge of sustainability. The results were coded using a hybrid of grounded and deductive coding and indicate that WiC groups offer various programs and events that enable women in CS to fully participate, learn, and grow. WiC represents an identity, a community, a safe space, and a journey. The results also suggest that the WiC has had positive impacts on students' identity and belonging, as evidenced by increased self‐efficacy, reduced imposter syndrome, and enhanced sense of belonging and community. Furthermore, we outline three strategies employed by the WiC to ensure the group's sustainability. Our study sheds light on how WiC can encourage women to enter and persist in CS, and on some of the characteristics of a successful WiC. We demonstrate that WiC may be potentially effective in diversifying CS through identity‐based participation. Moreover, student leaders design both the structure of the group and the leadership continuity process to ensure sustainability.

How Can We Best Assess Spatial Skills? Practical and Conceptual Challenges

Journal of Intelligence · 2024-01-16 · 41 citations

Spatial thinking skills are associated with performance, persistence, and achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) school subjects. Because STEM knowledge and skills are integral to developing a well-trained workforce within and beyond STEM, spatial skills have become a major focus of cognitive, developmental, and educational research. However, these efforts are greatly hampered by the current lack of access to reliable, valid, and well-normed spatial tests. Although there are hundreds of spatial tests, they are often hard to access and use, and information about their psychometric properties is frequently lacking. Additional problems include (1) substantial disagreement about what different spatial tests measure-even two tests with similar names may measure very different constructs; (2) the inability to measure some STEM-relevant spatial skills by any existing tests; and (3) many tests only being available for specific age groups. The first part of this report delineates these problems, as documented in a series of structured and open-ended interviews and surveys with colleagues. The second part outlines a roadmap for addressing the problems. We present possibilities for developing shared testing systems that would allow researchers to test many participants through the internet. We discuss technological innovations, such as virtual reality, which could facilitate the testing of navigation and other spatial skills. Developing a bank of testing resources will empower researchers and educators to explore and support spatial thinking in their disciplines, as well as drive the development of a comprehensive and coherent theoretical understanding of spatial thinking.

“You gotta tell the camera”: Advancing children's engineering learning opportunities through tinkering and digital storytelling

Child Development · 2024-03-28 · 3 citations

This study addressed whether combining tinkering with digital storytelling (i.e., narrating and reflecting about experiences to an imagined audience) can engender engineering learning opportunities. Eighty-four families with 5- to 10-year-old (M = 7.69) children (48% female children; 57% White, 11% Asian, 6% Black) watched a video introducing a tinkering activity and were randomly assigned either to a digital storytelling condition or a no digital storytelling condition during tinkering. After tinkering, families reflected on their tinkering experience and were randomly assigned to either engage in digital storytelling or not. Children in the digital storytelling condition during tinkering spoke most to an imagined audience during tinkering, talked most about engineering at reflection, and remembered the most information about the experience weeks later.