Educating Spatial Intelligence

Nora S. Newcombe
Temple University

Talk at National Geographic Society

November 2008
 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
 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
 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
 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
 Basic Adaptation
Way Finding

Tool Making
Everyday Life
Reasoning and Communication
Graphs and diagrams
Inference
Analogy
Metaphor
Performance in STEM Disciplines
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Engineering
Mathematics
Geoscience
Predicting B.A. Degree Areas
From Shea, Lubinski & Benbow (2001)
 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?
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
Especially Important For Girls
40
35
30
25
Boys
20
Girls
15
Frequency 10
5
0

Spatial Transformation Score

Levine, Huttenlocher, Taylor & Langrock (1999)

 Social Class Effects and the Male
Advantage
(Levine, Vasilyeva, Lourenco, Newcombe &
Huttenlocher, Psychological Science, 2005)
100
100
Boys Girls
Boys Girls
90
90

80
80
Percentage Correct

Percentage Correct
70 70

60 60

50 50

40 40

30 30
Chance Chance
20 20
Low Middle High Low Middle High
SES SES

Aerial Maps Mental Rotation

Not Just Because of Difficulty Level
(Levine, Vasilyeva, Lourenco, Newcombe &
Huttenlocher, Psychological Science, 2005)
100
Boys Girls
90
Percentage Correct

80 Fall, 2nd grade Spring, 3rd grade

70

60

50

40

30

20
High Middle Low
SES
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)
 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)
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?
 Training
One hour per week for a semester

Tetris or Solitaire
Weekly MRT administration
Time Course of Improvement
Terlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008

20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
MRT Score

12
11 Practice
10
9 Training
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Weeks
Time Course of Improvement
Terlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008

20
18
16
14
MRT Score

12 High M
10 High W
8 Low W
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Weeks
 Improvement is Durable
Terlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008

20

18

16

14
MRT Score

12 Practice
10 Training

2
Pretest Posttest Retake
Transfer is Durable and
Tetris Augments Transfer
Terlecki, Newcombe & Little, 2008
0.9

0.8

0.7
Transfer Task % Correct

0.6

0.5 Practice
0.4 Training

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
Pretest Posttest Retake
 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
Three Tasks
Training
21 consecutive
days, about 20
minutes per day
Either MRT or
Paper Folding
Transfer Across Spatial Tasks
Wright, Thompson, Ganis, Newcombe & Kosslyn,
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2008
Transfer Across Spatial Tasks
Wright, Thompson, Ganis, Newcombe & Kosslyn,
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2008
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
 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?
 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
 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)
 The 2 by 2 Framework
Object Scene
Static
Dynamic
 One Application of the Framework:
Language
Object Scene
Static

Noun Preposition
Dynamic

Manner Verb Path Verb

 The Third Dimension:
Scale
Different processes for different scales
(particularly peri-personal space)
Object versus scene at many scales
 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
 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 will talk about this later
 Dynamic Representations:
Mental Transformations May Be
Formally But Not Psychologically
Equivalent
Rotate object (or array) vs move viewer
 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?

39
Morris Water Maze

40
 Morris Water Maze
Room Cue

Room Cue 3

Room Cue

41
 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
 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
Newcombe, Huttenlocher, Drummey & Wiley
landmarks (1998), Cognitive Development
 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?

44
Morris Water Maze for Kids

45
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

46
47
 cueA cueB

cueC
cueD

48
 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

49
 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

50
 More Detailed Analyses
Search types

Spatial (perimeter, correct quadrant)
 Non-spatial (under self, other, unrelated)
Language

Nouns, verbs, preps, total language, relational
language
 Peripheral Searches (proximal cue use)

cueA cueB

cueC
cueD
Correct Quadrant Search (distal cue use = place learning)

cueA cueB

cueC
cueD
 Non-spatial searches

cueA cueB

cueC
cueD
 Spatial Results
100%

90%

80%

70%

60% goal found/4

% adj
50% % periph
% spatial
40% % non spatial

30%

20%

10%

0%
16-18 19-21 22-24
Age
 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 -- -.2 (.35)

found
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
 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
 Some Examples
The use of analogical comparison in teaching
geoscience
 Dedre Gentner
Understanding young children’s difficulties with
measurement—and 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
 Teachers Vary in Spatial Input
(Levine & Huttenlocher)

1
25
2

20 3
4

Instances of spatial 15 5
6
talk in one hour of 10 7
coded tape 8
5
9
0 10
1 11
12
13
And Input is Correlated with
Children’s Spatial Growth
(Levine & Huttenlocher)
25

20

15
spatial input

10

0
-0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3
change in chidlren's spatial scores
 Play Contexts

Pre-assembled Play Free Play

Guided Play
Parental Spatial Language in
Four Contexts
Proportion of Parental Spatial Language

0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0
Pre-assembled Free Play Guided Play CHILDES
Play Control

Session 1 Session 2
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
 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