Educating Spatial Intelligence

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Educating Spatial Intelligence

• Nora S. Newcombe
• Temple University
• Talk at National Geographic Society
• November 2008

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Basic Adaptation

• Way Finding
• Tool Making

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Everyday Life
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Reasoning and Communication

• Graphs and diagrams
• Inference
• Analogy
• Metaphor

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Performance in STEM Disciplines

• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Engineering
• Mathematics
• Geoscience

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Predicting B.A. Degree AreasFrom Shea, Lubinski
Benbow (2001)
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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?

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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

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Especially Important For Girls
Frequency
Spatial Transformation Score
Levine, Huttenlocher, Taylor Langrock (1999)
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Social Class Effects and the Male Advantage
(Levine, Vasilyeva, Lourenco, Newcombe
Huttenlocher, Psychological Science, 2005)
Mental Rotation
Aerial Maps
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Not Just Because of Difficulty Level (Levine,
Vasilyeva, Lourenco, Newcombe Huttenlocher,
Psychological Science, 2005)
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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)

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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 durable and transferable
• Terlecki, Newcombe Little (Applied Cognitive
  Psychology, 2008)
• Wright, Thompson, Ganis, Newcombe Kosslyn
  (Psychonomic Bulletin Review, 2008)

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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?

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Training

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

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Time Course of ImprovementTerlecki, Newcombe
Little, 2008
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Time Course of ImprovementTerlecki, Newcombe
Little, 2008
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Improvement is DurableTerlecki, Newcombe
Little, 2008
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Transfer is Durable and Tetris Augments
TransferTerlecki, Newcombe Little, 2008
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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

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Three Tasks
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Training

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

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

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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?

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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

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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)

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The 2 by 2 Framework
Object
Scene
Static
Dynamic
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One Application of the Framework Language
Object
Scene
Static
Noun
Preposition
Manner Verb
Dynamic
Path Verb
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The Third DimensionScale

• Different processes for different scales
  (particularly peri-personal space)
• Object versus scene at many scales

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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

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Static Scene RepresentationsHierarchical 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 will talk about this later

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Dynamic RepresentationsMental Transformations
May Be Formally But Not Psychologically Equivalent

• Rotate object (or array) vs move viewer

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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
  developmentindividual differences?

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Morris Water Maze
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Morris Water Maze
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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,
  OKeefe (1982)
• Human studies e.g., Holdstock et al. (2000)
• Place learning seems to emerge between 18 and 24
  months of age

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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
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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?

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Morris Water Maze for Kids
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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

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(No Transcript)
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X
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Procedures

• Familiarization
• Learning
• 4 trials to learn the puzzles location
• Different points of entry
• Test
• Same as learning trials
• No puzzle
• Control
• Control for motivation walking speed
• Puzzle clearly visible

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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

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More Detailed Analyses

• Search types
• Spatial (perimeter, correct quadrant)
• Non-spatial (under self, other, unrelated)
• Language
• Nouns, verbs, preps, total language, relational
  language

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Peripheral Searches (proximal cue use)
X
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Correct Quadrant Search (distal cue use place
learning)
X
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Non-spatial searches
X
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Spatial Results
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Space and Language
Intercorrelations between language and spatial
searches
Measure Nouns Verbs Preps times goal found searches under other
Nouns -- .87 .72 .21 (.34) .36 (.09)
Verbs -- .80 .11 (.61) .34 (.10)
Preps -- .42 (.05) .20 (.34)
times goal found -- -.2 (.35)
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Conclusions and Implications

• Place learning and expressive language develop
  independently in 16-24 month old children
• BUT--Acquisition of prepositions and place
  learning do correlate
• Individual differences measure allows us to
  address relations with other abilities
• Episodic memory (not spatial but should
  correlate)
• Mental rotation (spatial but may not correlate)
• New way to address structure of intellect in
  comparative and neuroscience-inspired context

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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

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Some Examples

• The use of analogical comparison in teaching
  geoscience
• Dedre Gentner
• Understanding young childrens difficulties with
  measurementand ameliorating them
• Susan Levine Kristin Ratliff
• The importance of spatial language to children
• Just a few examples now
• Many others
• Spatial toolkit will bring them together

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Teachers Vary in Spatial Input(Levine
Huttenlocher)
Instances of spatial talk in one hour of coded
tape
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And Input is Correlated with Childrens Spatial
Growth (Levine Huttenlocher)
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Play Contexts
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Parental Spatial Language in Four Contexts
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How Do We Accelerate Pace and Scope of Study of
These Issues?

• Spatial Network at www.spatiallearning.org
• Resources at same URL
• Sian Beilock is coordinating
• Gatherings like this one!
• Thanks to Danny Edelson and the NGS

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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