Predicting environmental learning from spatial abilities: An indirect route

Relationship between spatial ability, visuospatial working memory and self-assessed spatial orientation ability: a study in older adults

“…Using structural equation models, they found that small-scale spatial abilities predicted performance in a number of environmental tasks, but were more predictive of learning from media than from direct experience; the opposite applied to self-rated sense of direction, which predicted performance after learning from direct experience better than after learning from media. 5 Allen et al (1996) tested an alternative view, making the point that finding no direct links between spatial and environmental abilities does not preclude the possibility of a mediated relationship. In two structural model studies on young adults, they analyzed direct and mediated relations between three kinds of measure: psychometric spatial tests for examining spatial ability, experimental tasks for testing perspective-taking ability and sequential memory, and environmental tasks for assessing participants' knowledge after a walk through a town.…”

“…A further aim of the study was to test a model similar to the one proposed by Allen et al (1996) in older adults and with different variables. In the model tested here, the new tasks were predicted by spatial ability and VSWM and, in turn, predicted orientation abilities (as assessed by the questionnaires), so the following pattern of relations among variables was expected: (i) direct effects of the spatial and VSWM tests on the new tasks, which would in turn have direct effects on the questionnaires; (ii) no direct effects of the spatial and VSWM tests on the questionnaires.…”

Aging and path integration skill: Kinesthetic and vestibular contributions to wayfinding

“…Several factors have been identified as major contributors to performance. Computation of the direction back to the origin and computation of the distance back to the origin after an outbound route are generally regarded as distinct but related operations (Allen, Kirasic, Dobson, Long, & Beck, 1996;Anooshian & Kromer, 1986;Berthoz et al, 1999;Klatzky et al, 1997;Loomis et al, 1999). Clearly, encoding outbound distances and encoding the outbound turn angle hold the key to understanding direction and distance errors during the return to the origin.…”

Task Routing and Assignment in Crowdsourcing based on Cognitive Abilities

“…The use of cognitive abilities as substantial factor for determining the work performance of individuals has been explored and validated in numerous studies within several research communities (e.g., [1,30,37,41,58]). In particular, these studies explore the relationship between cognitive characteristics and task performance, highlighting the importance of cognitive abilities in predicting individual differences in job performance.…”

“…The kit of tests was originally published in 1976 and has gained validity and reliability across disciplines with the passing of time. The tests have been used in various domains such as multimedia learning, Alzheimer's disease research, decisionmaking, or human spatial cognition [1,37,51,58]. As our experiment relies on visual and fluency cognitive abilities, it is important to note that previous work has highlighted the appropriateness of these cognitive tests as a measure to cognitive ability for these two factors (e.g., [9]).…”