1,721,021 research outputs found
Training mental rotation skills to improve spatial ability
No full textPrior research indicates that spatial skills, such as Mental Rotation Skills (MRS), are a strong predictor for mathematics achievement. Other studies have shown that MRS can be instilled through training and that they are a good predictor of another spatial skill: route learning and wayfinding skills. This paper explores these assumptions and reports an experiment with 43 undergraduate psychology students from a university in the south of England. Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions. Both groups were given pre- and post-tests on wayfinding in a maze. The intervention group trained with a MRS tool, based on a standardised MRS task. The control group did filler tasks by completing crossword puzzles. Collectively, the 43 students made 43×48=2064 assessment items for MRS, and 2×43=86 mazes. Although the intervention group showed a decrease in time needed to do the maze task, while the control group saw an increase, these changes were not significant
Conditioned Inhibition in the spatial domain in humans and rats
No full textSpatial learning has been shown to follow associative rules by demonstrations of blocking and overshadowing in both watermazes with rats and virtual watermazes with humans. To examine whether Conditioned Inhibition (CI) can also be demonstrated in a real and virtual watermaze task, two studies were run, one with rats and one with humans. In separate training trials Beacons A and B marked the position of a platform in quadrant X of circular watermaze (AX +/BX+). In subsequent inhibitory training trials, Beacon A was placed in quadrant Y with no platform present (AY-). To test for any CI of Y, in 2 probe trials B was suspended above either quadrant Y (BY) or novel quadrant Z (BZ). Time spent under B was recorded in both trials. In both animal and human studies, during no platform probe trials, latencies to reach Beacon B were longer and less time was spent under the beacon when it was suspended in quadrant Y, where inhibitory training had previously taken place (AY- trials), than when it was hung in the novel quadrant Z. Results suggest that quadrant Y had become a conditioned inhibitor strengthening claims that learning in the spatial domain follows the rules of associative models.<br/
Building digital cube houses to improve mental rotation skills
No full textPrior research indicates that spatial skills, such as mental rotation skills (MRS), are a strong predictor for mathematics achievement, while other studies have also shown that MRS can be improved through training. This paper explores whether a well-known puzzle-oriented tool for building houses with 3D cubes is effective in improving performance in a standardised MRS measure that recorded accuracy and speed. The field experiment took place with 85 year 7 (11–12 year olds) pupils from an independent secondary school in the south of England. We used two conditions in the experiment, with the puzzle-oriented training tool being the intervention condition. The findings show there was a significant effect for accuracy but not for speed. Contrary to prior research our findings did not show any gender effects. The findings and implications are discussed in light of the existing literature around spatial skills, as well as design aspects
Common elements enhance or retard negative patterning discrimination learning depending on modality of stimuli
No full textHuman contingency learning studies were used to compare the predictions of configural and elemental theories. In two experiments, participants were required to learn which stimuli were associated with an increase in core temperature of a fictitious nuclear plant. Experiments investigated the rate at which a simple Negative Patterning discrimination (A+ B+ ABø) was learned compared to one containing a common but irrelevant element (CD+ CE+ CDEø). When the three elements were from separate modalities (Visual, Auditory and Tactile) the common element enhanced the rate at which the discrimination was learned. When stimuli were drawn from a single modality (Visual) the common element disrupted learning. A single elemental model, Harris and Livesey’s (2010) attention modulated associative network, was shown to predict both sets of results as the model predicts elements from the same modality attenuate summation. In Experiment 2, the common element was separately paired with a consistent outcome (Co) and the effect of the common element within the discrimination was found to be removed, again in line with the predictions of Harris and Livesy (2010)
Multi-modal discrimination learning in humans: evidence for configural theory
No full textHuman contingency learning was used to compare the predictions of configural and elemental theories. In three experiments, participants were required to learn which indicators were associated with an increase in core temperature of a fictitious nuclear plant. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated the rate at which a triple-element stimulus (ABC) could be discriminated from either single-element stimuli (A, B, and C) or double-element stimuli (AB, BC, and AC). Experiment 1 used visual stimuli, whilst Experiment 2 used visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. In both experiments the participants took longer to discriminate the triple-element stimulus from the more similar double-element stimuli than from the less similar single-element stimuli. Experiment 3 tested for summation with stimuli from either single or multiple modalities and summation was found only in the latter. Thus the pattern of results seen in Experiments 1 and 2 was not dependent on whether the stimuli were single- or multi-modal nor was it dependent on whether the stimuli could elicit summation. This pattern of results is consistent with the predictions of Pearce’s (1987) configural theory
Dataset supporting the University of Southampton Doctoral Thesis "The benefits of nostalgia within spatial environments for people with and without Alzheimer’s disease" Empirical paper II "Nostalgia assuages spatial anxiety"
No full textDataset supporting the University of Southampton Doctoral Thesis "The benefits of nostalgia within spatial environments for people with and without Alzheimer’s disease." This dataset supports Empirical Paper II, "Nostalgia assuages spatial anxiety."
The data comprises 3 experiments, presented in excel files.
The experiments files and analysis scripts are available for download at the:
Oliver, A., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Parker, M. O., Wood, A., & Redhead, E. (2024, February 13). Nostalgia Assuages Spatial Anxiety. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ET7AZ
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Interaction of task difficulty and gender stereotype threat with a spatial orientation task in a virtual nested environment
Full text linkTwo experiments examined the interaction of task difficulty and stereotype threat in a spatial orientation task. Having explored the exterior and interior of a virtual building, participants were placed in a room with an external or internal view and asked to face a previously seen but occluded external target cue. In the internal room participants could use spatial updating to track their position in terms of the target cue, and in the external room they could also use the allocentric spatial relationship between the target cue and a visible external cue. Participants performed better in the external room, illustrating spatial updating is more difficult than allocentric array learning. In Experiment 1, participants were informed that they were likely to perform better, worse or the same as members of the opposite sex. Overall males performed better than females, but males given the threat statement performed worst. There was no difference between female groups. Experiment 2a, reduced the difficulty of the task by including internal orienting cues. Females with the orientation cues performed better than females without orientation cues and the same as males. In Experiment 2b, with orientation cues present, there was a significant effect of stereotype threat for both males and females but only in the more difficult internal room trial. The results suggest gender stereotype threats affect spatial orientation but only at an appropriate level of task difficulty
Dataset supporting the University of Southampton Doctoral Thesis "The benefits of nostalgia within spatial environments for people with and without Alzheimer’s disease" Empirical paper I "Induction of spatial anxiety in a virtual navigation environment"
No full textThis dataset is supporting the University of Southampton Doctoral Thesis "The benefits of nostalgia within spatial environments for people with and without Alzheimer’s disease".
This dataset supports Empirical paper I, "Induction of Spatial Anxiety in a Virtual Navigation Environment." The spatial anxiety induction procedure is available for free use. The software package and instruction manual can be downloaded on the following site, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/UQ4V7
When using the route-learning task, please cite:
Oliver. A., Wildschut, T., Parker, M. O., Wood, A. P., & Redhead, E. (2022). Induction of Spatial Anxiety in a Virtual Navigation Environment. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01979-1
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Interaction between locale and taxon strategies in human spatial learning
No full textThree computer-based experiments which tested human participants in a non-immersive virtual watermaze task sought to determine factors which dictate whether the presence of a visual platform disrupts locale learning and taxon learning. In Experiment 1, the visible platform disrupted locale but not taxon learning based on viewpoint-independent and viewpoint-dependent information, respectively. In Experiment 2, taxon learning based on non-geometric cues providing viewpoint-dependent information was disrupted by the visible platform when the cues required relational information to disambiguate them from other cues. Experiment 3 placed participants in an isosceles triangular pool. The presence of the visible platform did not disrupt the encoding of relational information provided by shape of the pool. These results support the notion that geometric cues are encoded in a separate module which is impenetrable to non-geometric cues not creating the shape of the environment
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