spatial perception, higher spatial thinking, strategy use

Our point of view on this research:

This study investigated the use of visual imagery while solving mathematical word problems. The researchers used 66 sixth grade students who had previously been identified as average achievers, gifted, or children with difficulties in learning. The results suggest that the use of schematic imagery is related to success in solving math word problems. Students with high spatial visualization ability tend to produce images that are primarily schematic in nature and students with low spatial visualization ability tended to produce pictorial images, that do not bolster thinking about a problem. The use of schematic imagery is characteristic of young people who have strength in higher spatial thinking which is beneficial for math problem solving that involves the reproduction of a pattern or structure.

spatial perception, higher spatial thinking, strategy use

Our point of view on this research:

This work explored 66 sixth-grade students' use of visual imagery while solving mathematical problems. The researchers used students that represented three levels of problem-solving ability; those who struggle with learning, average achieving students, and gifted learners. The participants were shown math problems that they were asked to solve and then were interviewed about the strategies that they used to solve the problems ("Describe the picture you had in your mind while you were solving the problem"). The strategies used by the students were categorized as schematic or pictorial based on whether or not the representation that the student described communicated a spatial image of the relations expressed in the problem. The results of the study suggest that gifted students used schematic representation significantly more often than students who struggle with learning and average achieving students. Further, schematic representations were used on correctly solved problems and pictorial representations were used for incorrect solutions.

spatial perception, higher spatial thinking

Our point of view on this research:

This research was conducted with 91 first-year college students with no previous experience in physics. The authors first assessed the spatial visualization abilities of the participants through the use of tests that measure the processes of perceiving, encoding, and mentally manipulating spatial forms. On the basis of these assessments, the students were grouped into low and high spatial ability categories. They were then asked to take a number of kinematics problem solving tests that assessed their understanding of the laws of mechanics. The researchers found that students with high visual-spatial abilities were more likely to successfully integrate several motion parameters, to interpret kinematics graphs as abstract representations of an object's motion, and to reorganize one spatial problem representation into another coordinated, corresponding representation. The results suggest that people who differ in spatial abilities also differ in their ability to solve physics problems that involve multiple spatial parameters.