A Profile of the Spatial Visualisation Abilities of First Year Engineering and Science Students

The link between spatial visualisation skills and academic and professional achievement in STEM fields is well established. It is also widely documented that men outperform women on tests of spatial ability. This disparity puts women at a relative disadvantage for academic success in STEM disciplines. Our research explores the influence of secondary academic experience on spatial visualisation ability among first year students entering an engineering or science programme. Spatial ability was measured using two standard psychometric instruments for measurement of spatial visualization. Out of eight secondary courses considered, a single course in design and computer graphics emerged as a predictor of spatial ability. Students who took this course had significantly higher scores on both measures of spatial cognition than students who did not take the course. There was no significant difference in test scores of men and women who took the course. A significant gender gap was observed among students who did not take the course. Context Spatial skills are the ability to understand and remember the spatial relationships among objects. Linn and Petersen (1985) describe three categories of spatial skills based on the processes used in solving spatial tasks:

[1]  Jean Piaget,et al.  Mental Imagery In The Child: A Study Of The Development Of Imaginal Representation , 1971 .

[2]  Georg Gittler,et al.  On gender differences in mental rotation processing speed , 2014 .

[3]  J. H. Steiger,et al.  Accomplishment in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and Its Relation to STEM Educational Dose: A 25-Year Longitudinal Study , 2010 .

[4]  M. Linn,et al.  Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: a meta-analysis. , 1985, Child development.

[5]  Sheryl A. Sorby,et al.  Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Gender Differences in the Spatial Skills of Engineering Students. , 1999 .

[6]  D. Geary,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST The Science of Sex Differences in Science and Mathematics , 2022 .

[7]  D. Lubinski,et al.  Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance. , 2009 .

[8]  D. Uttal,et al.  The malleability of spatial skills: a meta-analysis of training studies. , 2013, Psychological bulletin.

[9]  GEORGE M. BODNER,et al.  The Purdue Visualization of Rotations Test , 1997 .

[10]  Theodore Branoff,et al.  Spatial Visualization Measurement: A Modification of the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test - Visualization of Rotations. , 2000 .

[11]  M. Kozhevnikov,et al.  Creativity, visualization abilities, and visual cognitive style. , 2013, The British journal of educational psychology.

[12]  A. M. White.  The Process of Education , 1994 .

[13]  Jianping Yue.  Spatial Visualization By Orthogonal Rotations , 2004 .

[14]  Sheryl A. Sorby,et al.  Improving the Spatial Skills of Engineering Students: Impact on Graphics Performance and Retention. , 2001 .

[15]  Marcia C. Linn,et al.  The Role of Spatial Reasoning in Engineering and the Design of Spatial Instruction , 1997 .

[16]  So Yoon Yoon,et al.  A Meta-Analysis on Gender Differences in Mental Rotation Ability Measured by the Purdue Spatial Visualization Tests: Visualization of Rotations (PSVT:R) , 2013 .

[17]  David Lubinski,et al.  Sex Differences in Mathematical Reasoning Ability at Age 13: Their Status 20 Years Later , 2000, Psychological science.

[18]  L G Humphreys,et al.  Utility of predicting group membership and the role of spatial visualization in becoming an engineer, physical scientist, or artist. , 1993, The Journal of applied psychology.

[19]  Susan D. Voyer,et al.  Magnitude of sex differences in spatial abilities: a meta-analysis and consideration of critical variables. , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[20]  Sheryl A. Sorby,et al.  Developing 3-D Spatial Visualization Skills. , 1999 .

[21]  Self-Concept Variables.  Sex Differences in , 2016 .

[22]  S. Vandenberg,et al.  Mental Rotations, a Group Test of Three-Dimensional Spatial Visualization , 1978, Perceptual and motor skills.

[23]  S. Sorby.  Educational Research in Developing 3‐D Spatial Skills for Engineering Students , 2009 .

[24]  Thomas J. Bouchard,et al.  The structure of human intelligence: It is verbal, perceptual, and image rotation (VPR), not fluid and crystallized , 2005 .

[25]  John A. Deno.  The Relationship of Previous Experiences to Spatial Visualization Ability. , 1995 .

[26]  D. Lubinski,et al.  Importance of Assessing Spatial Ability in Intellectually Talented Young Adolescents: A 20-Year Longitudinal Study. , 2001 .

[27]  J. Bruner.  The Process of Education , 1960 .