Susceptibility of Wechsler Spatial Ability to Experience with Related Games

Abstract

Dirks (1982) reported that the WISC-R Block-Design subtest score is amenable to 30 minutes of practice effects transferring from a commercially available game. This claim is not without some theoretical significance in view of the evidence suggesting that spatial ability is relatively immune from such environmental effects. The Dirks study involved a game that is nearly identical to the BD subtest. The present experiment investigated two spatial games of lessor but more typical similarity by using the WPPSI. No transfer effects were found.

The general intelligence and spatial abilities of gifted young Belgian chess players

“…Studies of the transfer of skills make this unlikely. For instance, Longstreth & Alcorn (1990) trained children on spatial games involving the assembly of coloured blocks into designs and could find no transfer effect to the performance subtests of the WPPSI. In a further study, it was found that prolonged training on the recall of digits had no transfer to the recall of letters (Ericsson, Chase & Faloon, 1980).…”

Lack of Practice Effects on Neuropsychological Tests as Early Cognitive Markers of Alzheimer Disease?

“…The observation that healthy aged subjects very often showed superior performance at repeated neuropsychological testing drew our attention to the phenomenon of practice effects on neuropsychological tests. Practice effects at repeated testing have been reported to occur among braininjured patients, 9 in children, 10 and in adults across different age categories. 11 For older subjects, they are usually greater on simple tasks and smaller on complex tasks, 12 which may be due to age-related decline in adaptability.…”