A dissociation between two classes of spatial abilities in elementary school children

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Authors

This study investigates whether the abilities to mentally manipulate an imagined object (object manipulation abilities) and the abilities to coordinate perspectives of mental movement of the imagined self (egocentric perspective transformation abilities) are distinct classes of spatial abilities in elementary school children. We developed a paper-and-pencil test with measures of mental rotations and folding and a wide range of perspective taking tasks. 240 fourth graders were tested. By comparing different models in a confirmatory factor analysis, we found that there is a partial dissociation between object manipulation spatial abilities and perspective transformation abilities. The results specify the degree of overlap, and sex differences concerning the measures but not the underlying constructs.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSpatial Cognition XI - 11th International Conference, Spatial Cognition 2018 : Proceedings
Number of pages16
PublisherSpringer
Publication date01.01.2018
Pages228-243
ISBN (print)978-3-319-96384-6
ISBN (electronic)978-3-319-96385-3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2018
Event11th International Conference on Spatial Cognition 2018 - University Tübingen, Tubingen, Germany
Duration: 05.09.201808.09.2018
Conference number: 11
https://sites.psu.edu/sc2018/ (Conference)