Educating Spatial Intelligence

1. Educating Spatial Intelligence Nora S. Newcombe Temple University Talk at National Geographic Society November 2008

2. Four Arguments • Spatial intelligence and learning are important • Spatial intelligence and learning can be improved • There are sex-linked and SES-linked differences in spatial intelligence--addressing these differences is important for social equity • Spatial intelligence and learning are critically under-studied • Specific educational techniques to foster spatial intelligence are within our grasp

3. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, Preaching to the Converted Penn State spatial discussion group UC-Santa Barbara NCGIA and Varenius Projects Learning to Think Spatially

4. Four Arguments • Spatial intelligence and learning are important • Spatial intelligence and learning can be improved • There are sex-linked and SES-linked differences in spatial intelligence--addressing these differences is important for social equity • Spatial intelligence and learning are critically under-studied • Specific educational techniques to foster spatial intelligence are within our grasp

5. Spatial Intelligence and Learning Are Important In an evolutionary context, spatial adaptation is vital In modern life, spatial thinking is used both in everyday tasks and in reasoning and communication In scientific thought and communication, spatial skills are particularly central

6. Basic Adaptation • Way Finding • Tool Making

7. Everyday Life

8. Reasoning and Communication • Graphs and diagrams • Inference • Analogy • Metaphor

9. Performance in STEM Disciplines • Physics • Chemistry • Biology • Engineering • Mathematics • Geoscience

10. Predicting B.A. Degree AreasFromShea, Lubinski & Benbow (2001)

11. What We Still Need • Do improvements in spatial skill translate into greater STEM interest and ability? • How important are any such effects? • Do such effects reduce sex- and SES-based differences in STEM participation? • How do such effects compare with other influences, e.g., work-family conflicts? • Does early spatial skill relate to early STEM learning?

12. Four Arguments • Spatial intelligence and learning are important • Spatial intelligence and learning can be improved • There are sex-linked and SES-linked differences in spatial intelligence--addressing these differences is important for social equity • Spatial intelligence and learning are critically under-studied • Specific educational techniques to foster spatial intelligence are within our grasp

13. Especially Important For Girls Frequency Spatial Transformation Score Levine, Huttenlocher, Taylor & Langrock (1999)

14. Social Class Effects and the Male Advantage (Levine, Vasilyeva, Lourenco, Newcombe & Huttenlocher, Psychological Science, 2005) Mental Rotation Aerial Maps

15. Not Just Because of Difficulty Level(Levine, Vasilyeva, Lourenco, Newcombe & Huttenlocher, Psychological Science, 2005)

16. Some Prior Reasons To Believe in Malleability • Effects of practice and training • Baenninger & Newcombe (1989) • Effects of simple instructions • Ward, Newcombe & Overton (1986) • School effects • Huttenlocher, Levine & Vevea (1998)

17. New Data on Malleability • New meta-analysis supports large training effects, as well as durability and transfer • Liu, Uttal, Marulis, Lewis, Warren, & Newcombe, under review • David Uttal will present this later on • Two specific recent studies on improvement that is durableand transferable • Terlecki, Newcombe & Little (Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2008) • Wright, Thompson, Ganis, Newcombe & Kosslyn (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2008)

18. Five Questions about Improvement in Mental Rotation Skills • What is the shape of long-term growth trajectories? • Does videogame training have effects exceeding simple practice? • Do growth trajectories differ for men and women, and for individuals of higher or lower spatial experience? • Are practice and training effects durable? • Do practice and training transfer, and is transfer durable?

19. Training • One hour per week for a semester • Tetris or Solitaire • Weekly MRT administration

20. Time Course of ImprovementTerlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008

21. Time Course of ImprovementTerlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008

22. Improvement is DurableTerlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008

23. Transfer is Durable and Tetris Augments TransferTerlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008

24. Five New Aims • Training intensive enough to produce large gains but shorter than a semester • Novel stimuli: to assess stimulus-specific versus general effects • Symmetric look at transfer: A to B and also B to A • Non-spatial task to make sure transfer is spatially-specific • Componential analysis: intercept versus slope effects

25. Three Tasks

26. Training • 21 consecutive days, about 20 minutes per day • Either MRT or Paper Folding

27. Transfer Across Spatial TasksWright, Thompson, Ganis, Newcombe & Kosslyn, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2008

28. Transfer Across Spatial TasksWright, Thompson, Ganis, Newcombe & Kosslyn, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2008

29. Goals for New Training Studies • Delineate mechanisms of improvement and possible additivity of methods • Allowing for tailored recommendations about sequencing and aptitude-treatment interactions • Tim Shipley will present progress report on an adult study of this kind • How should we best enhance spatial learning in children? • Methods that are more play, less work • Gesture, puzzle play, paper folding, block play • Training in different SES groups

30. More Goals • What are the neural correlates of improvements? • Do they provide clues as to mechanism? • How do we improve way finding skills? • Is there far transfer from visualization to way finding and vice versa? • (Again) What are the implications of improvements for STEM learning? • Different at various ages? • Different for different disciplines or sub-areas?

31. Four Arguments • Spatial intelligence and learning are important • Spatial intelligence and learning can be improved • There are sex-linked and SES-linked differences in spatial intelligence--addressing these differences is important for social equity • Spatial intelligence and learning are critically under-studied • Specific educational techniques to foster spatial intelligence are within our grasp

32. Spatial Framework • Two spatial frames • Object (internal relations that define shape) • Scene (external relations that define relations among objects) • Two temporal properties • Static (unchanging relations) • Dynamic (changing relations)

33. The 2 by 2 Framework Object Scene Static Dynamic

34. One Application of the Framework: Language Object Scene Static Noun Preposition Manner Verb Dynamic Path Verb

35. The Third Dimension:Scale • Different processes for different scales (particularly peri-personal space) • Object versus scene at many scales

36. Domain General Processes • There are many such processes and most of them are relevant to spatial learning • In SILC, we have been concentrating on: • Analogy • Gesture • Working memory • In addition, understanding diagrams involves non-spatial content mastery, e.g., of diagrammatic conventions

37. Static Scene Representations:Hierarchical Coding Model • Categorical or qualitative • Fine-grained or coordinate or metric • Bayesian combination • Leads to • Method to diagnose categories • Work on natural scenes and geoscience expertise • Way to think about development • Way to think about neural bases of spatial coding • Anjan Chatterjee willtalk about this later

38. Dynamic Representations:Mental Transformations May Be Formally But Not Psychologically Equivalent • Rotate object (or array) vs move viewer

39. Dynamic Scene Representations • Navigation can be guided by • Egocentric coding • Allocentric coding • Landmarks/place learning • Gradients such as slope • Daniele Nardi will present work on this later • Most work of this kind is on groups or normative development—individual differences?

40. Morris Water Maze

41. Room Cue 3 Room Cue 1 Room Cue 2 Morris Water Maze

42. The Emergence of Place Learning • Considerable evidence, from a wide variety of techniques, that place learning depends on hippocampus • Animal studies: e.g., Morris, Garrud, Rawlins, & O’Keefe (1982) • Human studies: e.g., Holdstock et al. (2000) • Place learning seems to emerge between 18 and 24 months of age

43. Place Learning Task • Children go to other side of box before searching • Landmarks in room either visible or hidden by circular white curtain • Results: Only children older than 21 months used the landmarks Newcombe, Huttenlocher, Drummey & Wiley (1998), Cognitive Development

44. New Research Questions • Are there individual differences in early place learning abilities? • Do language and spatial representations develop independently? • What is the relationship between the developing brain and emergent behavior?

45. Morris Water Maze for Kids

46. Balcomb & Newcombe • Subjects • Children aged 16-24 months • Materials • 10’ diameter carpeted circle divided into quadrants • Battery operated puzzle • Task • Locate puzzle hidden under carpet • Remember puzzle location

48. cueA cueB cueC cueD X

49. Procedures • Familiarization • Learning • 4 trials to learn the puzzle’s location • Different points of entry • Test • Same as learning trials • No puzzle • Control • Control for motivation & walking speed • Puzzle clearly visible

50. Results • Age correlates with • # times goal found: r(24)=.58, p=.001 • Expressive language: r(24)=.73, p=.0001 • Partial out age  • No correlation between # times goal found and expressive language r(26)=.15, p=.47