Performance on tasks of visuospatial memory and ability: A cross-sectional study in 330 adolescents aged 11 to 20

Abstract

Cognitive functions mature at different points in time between birth and adulthood. Of these functions, visuospatial skills, such as spatial memory and part-to-whole organization, have often been tested in children and adults but have been less frequently evaluated during adolescence. We studied visuospatial memory and ability during this critical developmental period, as well as the correlation between these abilities, in a large group of 330 participants (aged 11 to 20 years, 55% male). To assess visuospatial memory, the participants were asked to memorize and reproduce sequences of random locations within a grid using a computer. Visuospatial ability was tested using a variation of the Design Organization Test (DOT). In this paper-and-pencil test, the participants had one minute to reproduce as many visual patterns as possible using a numerical code. On the memory task, compared with younger participants, older participants correctly reproduced more locations overall and longer sequences of locations, made fewer mistakes and needed less time to reproduce the sequences. In the visuospatial ability task, the number of correctly reproduced patterns increased with age. We show that both visuospatial memory and ability improve significantly throughout adolescence and that performance on both tasks is significantly correlated.

Developmental changes in visual search are determined by changing visuospatial abilities and task repetition: A longitudinal study in adolescents

“…Visuospatial ability, measured by the DOT, increases with age. The average increase in the DOT score per year corresponds to the findings reported in previous cross-sectional studies (Burggraaf et al, 2015(Burggraaf et al, , 2017. One reason why visuospatial abilities increase during childhood might be that visuospatial abilities can increase with, for instance, musical expertise training (Brochard, Dufour, & Despr es, 2004), certain types of sports (Moreau, Clerc, Mansy-Dannay, & Guerrien, 2012), or video game play (Cherney, 2008;Sanchez, 2012).…”

“…To assess the visuospatial ability of the participants, we used a slightly shorter variation of the Design Organization Test (DOT; Killgore et al, 2005;Killgore & Gogel, 2014). Our own previous research (Burggraaf et al, 2015(Burggraaf et al, , 2017 showed the usability of a slightly shorter variation of the DOT instead of the Block-Design test when determining the development of visuospatial ability during adolescence. An advantage of the DOT is that it takes only approximately 10 minutes to explain and administer, which is much faster than the Block-Design test.…”

“…These are abilities that are also instrumental to our visual search task (Burnett Heyes, Zokaei, van der Staaij, Bays, & Husain, 2012;Linn & Petersen, 1985) For example, the analysis of the pattern of the focused element is necessary to determine whether it is the target or not while the part-to-whole integration of the visual search display can be used to determine in which direction the next saccade shall be made. Visuospatial ability improve with age (Burggraaf, Frens, Hooge, & van der Geest, 2015, 2017Eisner, 1972;Kohs, 1920;Shah & Frith, 1993); however, the development of visuospatial skills varies among subjects, thereby hampering the proper assessment of relationships among age, visuospatial skills and visual search behavior in a cross-sectional design.…”

“…Search behavior was analyzed in terms of the number of fixations per trial, the saccade amplitude and the distribution of fixation locations over the elements that shared visual characteristics with the target to a greater or lesser extent. Based on our earlier work (Burggraaf et al, 2015(Burggraaf et al, , 2017, we hypothesize that visuospatial ability increases with age and that during visual search, the speed at which visual information is processed increases, but the manner in which this information is gathered does not vary.…”

Predicting success in the performing arts: Ballet and music

“…Given the associations between parents' level of education and children's intelligence (Von Stumm & Plomin, 2015), and the association between age and performance on cognitive tests (Burggraaf, Frens, Hooge, & Van der Geest, 2018), we would test for confounders of success in ballet/music including age and the level of parental education.…”