Spatial Abilities Test TPS Further Development and New Results

1. Spatial Abilities Test TPSFurther Development and New Results Renata A. Górska, Cracow University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, e-mail: rgorska@pk.edu.pl Zuzana Juščaková, Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Civil Engineering, e-mail: zjus@tuke.sk ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

2. Research foundation Research on development of the spatial abilieties testing instrument has been initiated by Zuzana Juščaková in 2000 within a grant project funded by the Slovak Ministry of Education. In the first stage of the research test TPP has been develped and applied into researech. The results of a new studies conducted with the use of a mofdified test TPS, which was developed on the basis of a TPS, will be presented in the following. The research has been funded by the Slovak Ministry of Education in frame of a grant projecy VEGA 1/1407/04 ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

3. Subtest 1: Mutual position Subtest 1: 10 items; solution time: 13 minutes Regular polyhedra: a tetrahedron, a cube or an octahedron Straight line KL and the plane ABC chosen either on the edge or on a face of a solid. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

4. Subtest 1: Mutual position Subtest 1: The problem is to choose this one item out of the four given options in which the relation between line KL and plane ABC is different from the relations existing in the three other drawings. Relations: parallel or intersecting ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

5. Subtest 2: Snake in a cube Subtest 2: 10 items; solution time: 13 minutes A snake rolls and bends in a cube without having knots or overlapped parts. It can pass along the walls of a cube or inside it; it can bend in the centers of the walls; it can turn at midpoints of edges of the cube or it can be bent in a circular arc. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

6. Subtest 2: Snake in a cube Three views (multiview, 3rd angle projection method) of the snake in a cube are given. The subject’s task is to draw corresponding axonometric view of a snake inside a pictorial of a cube. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

7. Subtest 3: Two parts of a cube Subtest 3: 10 items; solution time: 8 minutes The task is to choose one of the given a, b, c, or dparts of a cube, which forms a full cube with a given part K. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

8. Tested groups & testing materials TPS was used as a testing instrument at: • some universities in Slovakia (SvF TU of Košice, FU TU Košice, PR Univ. in Ostrava) • some universities in Czech Republic (Jihočeská Univerzita – faculty of nature) • Cracow University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Poland ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

9. Mean Scores , St. Dev. & Number of cases (Scores in %) of the Subtest 1 ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

10. Mean Scores , St. Dev. & Number of cases (Scores in %) of the Subtest 2 ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

11. Mean Scores , St. Dev. & Number of cases (Scores in %) of the Subtest 3 ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

12. Gender differences One-tailed T-test was used to compare mean scores in a group by gender. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

13. Frequency Distribution for individual items in Subtest 1 (in % values) ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

14. Frequency Distribution for individual items in Subtest 2 (in % values) ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

15. Frequency Distribution for individual items in Subtest 3 (in % values) ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

16. Frequency Distribution Analysis • Normal (Gauss) frequency distribution for Subtest 1 and Subtest 3; • Subtest 2 does not present a normal distribution. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

17. Frequency Distribution in % values for the whole test (max=30 pts) related to the score rangesat CUT, FU TU of Košice and all Slovak & Czech Universities ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

18. MRT – a „Control” Test used as a Reference Evaluative correlation research on the resultsbetween TPS and MRT Pearson’s product correlation coefficient for TPS and MRT At Cracow University of Technology ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

19. Pearson’s product correlation coefficient for TPS and MRT at Cracow University of Technology ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

20. Conclusions • Test elaboration and validation: not all Subtests have a normal frequency of distribution, • Students from CUT (Poland) have significantly better performed on the TPS test. Technical orientation of this group of students is highly predictable. • Two psycho-diagnostics tests OTRS and ISA have been administered in Slovak and Czech schools/universities. The results analysis will be a subject of a separate publication. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland

21. Conclusions (cont..) • MRT has been used as a pilot, evaluative measurement to provide initial comparison between previously used test to measure spatial abilities. In this year the MRT results were much higher than in previous years. • Both MRT and TPS tests should be considered as „post”-tests as they were administered after a semester of a descriptive geometry course. • There was a significant gender difference on both tests (MRT and TPS) between male and female students. ICEE 2005 Gliwice, Poland