Effects of spatial training on mathematics in first and sixth grade children.

Abstract

A pretest-training-posttest design assessed whether training to improve spatial skills also improved mathematics performance in elementary-aged children. First grade students (mean age ϭ 7 years, n ϭ 134) and sixth grade students (mean age ϭ 12 years, n ϭ 124) completed training in 1 of 2 spatial skills-spatial visualization or form perception/VSWM-or in a nonspatial control condition that featured language arts training. Spatial training led to better overall mathematics performance in both grades, and the gains were significantly greater than for language arts training. The same effects were found regardless of spatial training type, or the type of mathematics tested. Educational Impact and Implications StatementWe tested whether children's mathematics scores could be improved with training in spatial skills (like, imagining objects rotating or remembering locations), based on previous research showing a connection between math and spatial skill. We found that spatial training improved math scores for children in first and sixth grade, and it did not seem to matter what kind of spatial practice we used or what specific math problems we tested. Our findings suggest that when children solve mathematics problems, they may recruit spatial thinking to help them, so teachers might use spatial tasks as a warm-up before mathematics instruction, or provide extra spatial practice to students who show weak spatial skills.

Reimagining Mathematics: The Role of Mental Imagery in Explaining Mathematical Calculation Skills in Childhood

“…Beyond correlational evidence, there is evidence that spatial visualization has a causal effect on these numerical skills. Cognitive training studies have demonstrated transfer of gains from spatial visualization training (measured using spatial transformation tasks) to numerical competencies including: calculation performance (Cheng & Mix, 2014; Gilligan, Thomas, & Farran, 2019; Mix, Levine, Cheng, Stockton, & Bower, 2020); symbolic number comparison (Hawes, Moss, Caswell, Naqvi, & MacKinnon, 2017); word problems (Lowrie et al, 2019; Mix et al, 2020); and place value (Mix et al, 2020). For example, it has been found children who were trained in spatial transformation demonstrated significant improvements in accuracy on a range of number‐based measures including Missing Term Problems (Mix et al, 2020).…”

“…value (Mix et al, 2020). For example, it has been found children who were trained in spatial transformation demonstrated significant improvements in accuracy on a range of number-based measures including Missing Term Problems (Mix et al, 2020). In short, several studies show that spatial transformation contributes causally to numerical skills.…”

Reimagining mathematics: The role of mental imagery in explaining mathematical calculation skills in childhood

“…Beyond correlational evidence, there is evidence that spatial visualisation has a causal effect on these basic numerical skills. Cognitive training studies have demonstrated transfer of gains from spatial visualisation training to basic numerical competencies including: calculation performance (Cheng & Mix, 2014;Gilligan, Thomas, & Farran, 2019;Mix et al, 2020); symbolic number comparison (Hawes et al, 2017); word problems (Lowrie, Logan, & Hegarty, 2019;Mix et al, 2020) and place value (Mix et al, 2020). In short, several studies show that spatial visualisation contributes causally to basic numerical skills.…”

Resting State EEG Related to Mathematical Improvement After Spatial Training in Children

“…Training on spatial tasks has indeed enhanced mathematical performance in some studies of rotation training (Hawes et al, 2017;Lowrie et al, 2017;Mix et al, 2020; but see also Hawes et al, 2015) as well as for vsWM (Bergman-Nutley and Klingberg, 2014;Berger et al, 2020;Mix et al, 2020;Judd and Klingberg, 2021; but see also Roberts et al, 2016). Mix et al (2020) recently compared children training on either vsWM or MR tasks and found that both groups improved compared to a control group engaged in language training. There was no significant difference between the two training groups in terms of the amount of improvement, nor on the type of mathematical tasks that were improved.…”

“…These correlations in performance have led to suggestions of enhancing mathematical ability through spatial training (Stieff and Uttal, 2015). Training on spatial tasks has indeed enhanced mathematical performance in some studies of rotation training (Hawes et al, 2017;Lowrie et al, 2017;Mix et al, 2020; but see also Hawes et al, 2015) as well as for vsWM (Bergman-Nutley and Klingberg, 2014;Berger et al, 2020;Mix et al, 2020;Judd and Klingberg, 2021; but see also Roberts et al, 2016). Mix et al (2020) recently compared children training on either vsWM or MR tasks and found that both groups improved compared to a control group engaged in language training.…”