Spatial abilities across the adult life span.

Abstract

The study investigates age-related effects across the adult life span on spatial abilities (testing subabilities based on a distinction between spatial visualization, mental rotation, and perspective taking) and spatial self-assessments. The sample consisted of 454 participants (223 women and 231 men) from 20 to 91 years of age. Results showed nonlinear age-related effects for spatial visualization and perspective taking but linear effects for mental rotation; few or no age-related effects were found for spatial self-assessments. Working memory accounted for only a small proportion of the variance in all spatial tasks and had no effect on spatial self-assessments. Overall, our findings suggest that the influence of age on spatial skills across the adult life span is considerable, but the effects of age change as a function of the spatial task considered, and the effect on spatial self-assessment is more marginal.

The role of spatial abilities and self-assessments in cardinal point orientation across the lifespan

“…Borella et al, 2014). Model 3 was similar to Model 1b, but with the addition of a direct path from WM to pointing in cardinal directions.…”

“…Wilkniss et al, 1997, or descriptions of environments -Meneghetti, Borella, Grasso, & De Beni, 2011. The few studies on the role of spatial skills in older adults' acquisition of new environments indicated that, although spatial abilities decline with aging (Borella, Meneghetti, Ronconi, & De Beni, 2014;Salthouse, Babcock, Skovronek, Mitchell, & Palmon, 1990), they are related to spatial learning. For instance, the performance of young and older adults in spatial tasks like the MRT has been found to be positively related to environment learning from a map (Meneghetti, Fiore, Borella, & De Beni, 2011;Pazzaglia & De Beni, 2006) or through real navigation (Kirasic, 2000).…”

“…A limitation of Kirasic's study lies, however, in that an extreme-groups design was used (young vs older adults), and no spatial self-assessments or processing resources (WM) were considered. Although they have been less thoroughly investigated in aging, spatial self-assessments have a role in supporting spatial activities in older adults too, being related to performance in tasks that involve pointing to places after map learning (Pazzaglia & De Beni, 2006), and in spatial tasks (such as EFT and MRT; Borella et al, 2014).…”

“…Shortened versions (s) of tried and tested tasks (see the battery standardized by De Beni et al, 2014) were used, which preserved a good internal reliability, comparable with that of the original versions (see Table 2; see also Borella et al, 2014).…”

“…Tasks measuring WM were included as well because of its role in complex cognitive spatial skills (e.g. Borella et al, 2014;Miyake, Friedman, Rettinger, Shah, & Hegarty, 2001). WM also appears to mediate the age-related differences in spatial abilities (Salthouse, Mitchell, Skovronek, & Babcock, 1989).…”