Concept learning in discrimination tasks.

Abstract

Seventy-two nursery school children and 72 second graders were randomly assigned by grade level to one of four warm-up groups: (1) orientation relevant, (2) orientation irrelevant, (3) minimal information regarding orientation, and (4) identical to that used by Gibson, Gibson, Pick, and Osser. Subjects were then given the identical form-discrimination task used by Gibson. Nursery school children in Group 1 performed as well as any second-grade group. Second graders in Group 2 made more rotation and reversal errors than nursery school childen in Groups 1, 3, and 4. Nursery school children in Group 1 made significantly fewer rotation and reversal errors than nursery school children in Group 4, and nursery school children in Groups 3 and 4 made fewer errors than either Group 2. Both an attentional factor and concept learning appear to be significant factors in these results.

The Development of Early Spatial Thinking

“…Our findings, along numerous studies where no sex differences in children's spatial skills were found (e.g., Caldwell & Hall, 1970;Estes, 1998;Frick et al, 2009;Jahoda, 1979;Jansen & Heil, 2010;Kaess, 1971;Kaplan & Weisberg, 1987;Kruger & Krist, 2009;Kosslyn et al, 1990;Lachance & Mazzocco, 2006;Lehmann, et a., 2014;Platt & Cohen, 1981;Verdine et al, 2017), suggest the male advantage in mental rotation skills is not consistent in childhood. These results highlight the complexity of the development of spatial ability and emphasize the need to continue examining the factors that influence the development of spatial skills, including when and how sex differences in spatial thinking develop.…”

“…Replicating this finding, a study examining the influence of early puzzle play on later spatial ability found sex differences on the CMTT at 4.5 years of age (Levine et al, 2012). However, several other studies have found no consistent sex differences in the spatial skills of preschool through primary school children in a variety of spatial tasks, including mental rotation (e.g., Caldwell & Hall, 1970;Estes, 1998;Frick et al, 2009;Frick et al, 2013;Jahoda, 1979;Jansen & Heil, 2010;Kaess, 1971;Kaplan & Weisberg, 1987;Kruger & Krist, 2009;Kosslyn, Margolis, Barrett, Goldknopf, & Daly, 1990;Lachance & Mazzocco, 2006;Lehmann, Quiaiser-Pohl, & Jansen, 2014;Platt & Cohen, 1981;Verdine et al, 2017). For example, Manger and Eikeland (1998) found no significant sex differences in sixth graders' performance on spatial visualization tasks.…”

Development of mental rotation in 3- to 5-year-old children

“…However, Linn and Petersen's meta-analysis did not include children younger than 10 years old. The more recent meta-analysis by Voyer et al listed four studies of mental rotation with children below the age of 10, three of which found no significant sex effects (Caldwell & Hall, 1970;Jahoda, 1979;Kaess, 1971). Interestingly, Voyer and colleagues found a positive relation between chronological age and effect size, suggesting that sex differences increase with age.…”

Using a touch screen paradigm to assess the development of mental rotation between 3½ and 5½ years of age

“…However, reports of sex differences in young children are inconsistent. Linn and Petersen's meta-analysis did not include children younger than 10 years of age, and three of the four studies listed by Voyer et al with children below the age of 10 found no significant effects of sex on mental rotation (Caldwell and Hall 1970;Jahoda 1979;Kaess 1971). Among more recent studies with young children aged 4 years and older that were not covered by these meta-analyses, some found no sex differences (Estes 1998;Frick et al 2009a;Kosslyn et al 1990;Platt and Cohen 1981), whereas others found higher error rates in boys (Krüger and Krist 2009), or sex differences in older but not in younger children (i.e., younger than 4.5 years of age, Levine et al 1999).…”