Guiding Low Spatial Ability Individuals through Visual Cueing: The Dual Importance of Where and When to Look

Abstract

Research suggests that spatial ability may predict success in complex disciplines including anatomy, where mastery requires a firm understanding of the intricate relationships occurring along the course of veins, arteries, and nerves, as they traverse through and around bones, muscles, and organs. Debate exists on the malleability of spatial ability, and some suggest that spatial ability can be enhanced through training. It is hypothesized that spatial ability can be trained in low-performing individuals through visual guidance. To address this, training was completed through a visual guidance protocol. This protocol was based on eye-movement patterns of high-performing individuals, collected via eye-tracking as they completed an Electronic Mental Rotations Test (EMRT). The effects of guidance were evaluated using 33 individuals with low mental rotation ability, in a counterbalanced crossover design. Individuals were placed in one of two treatment groups (late or early guidance) and completed both a guided, and an unguided EMRT. A third group (no guidance/control) completed two unguided EMRTs. All groups demonstrated an increase in EMRT scores on their second test (P < 0.001); however, an interaction was observed between treatment and test iteration (P = 0.024). The effect of guidance on scores was contingent on when the guidance was applied. When guidance was applied early, scores were significantly greater than expected (P = 0.028). These findings suggest that by guiding individuals with low mental rotation ability "where" to look early in training, better search approaches may be adopted, yielding improvements in spatial reasoning scores. It is proposed that visual guidance may be applied in spatial fields, such as STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine), surgery, and anatomy to improve student's interpretation of visual content. Anat Sci Educ. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.

The Effect of Stereoscopic Augmented Reality Visualization on Learning Anatomy and the Modifying Effect of Visual‐Spatial Abilities: A Double‐Center Randomized Controlled Trial

“…However, with the aid of orientation references, students have been able to successfully manipulate and learn from the virtual model. The tendency to choose a less effective strategy by low performing students has recently been demonstrated by Roach and colleagues (, b; ) in performing a mental rotation task. Students with higher visual‐spatial abilities had a distinct eye movement pattern in solving mental rotation tasks than low performing students (Roach et al, ).…”

“…Students with higher visual‐spatial abilities had a distinct eye movement pattern in solving mental rotation tasks than low performing students (Roach et al, ). When low performing students had been instructed by a visual guidance protocol that was based on the eye movement pattern of high performing students, they had significantly improved in solving the mental rotation tasks (Roach et al, ). For the reasons stated above, these individual differences can potentially affect the learning strategies of students and are of great interest for further investigation.…”

Anatomy Dissection Course Improves the Initially Lower Levels of Visual‐Spatial Abilities of Medical Undergraduates

“…These finding suggests that low‐performing students can achieve a larger magnitude of improvement than high‐performing students (Uttal et al, ). Additionally, students and residents with lower visual‐spatial abilities in a surgical field have been able to achieve required levels of knowledge and skills through suitable teaching methods and guidance (Wanzel et al, ; Lufler et al, ; Cui et al, ; Roach et al, ). Therefore, it might be valuable to consider visual‐spatial abilities as a tool to identify learners who will benefit most from extra practice and new learning environments (Yue, ) instead of an absolute selection criterium to guide selection of candidates for surgical training programs.…”

Three‐dimensional Visualization Software Assists Learning in Students with Diverse Spatial Intelligence in Medical Education

“…The students with prior MR training scored significantly higher than the untrained group, providing evidence of the impact of MR training. This impact is supported by the evidence particularly for those with lower spatial abilities on the learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as well as surgery and anatomy (Roach et al, ). In this study, higher learning of students who received prior MR training was evident by their scores, further supporting the existing evidence (McManus et al, ).…”