Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Spatial Ability and STEM Achievement

Spatial ability encompasses a number of related skills including the ability to understand size, shape, location, and direction/distance, to reorient and navigate in space, to use maps and diagrams, to mentally transform/rotate objects and to recreate patterns (Sinton et al., 2013). Spatial representations constitute a large part of the mathematical thinking process (Mix & Cheng, 2012). Therefore, individual differences in spatial skills are important predictors of individual differences in mathematics achievement (Verdine et al., 2014) and entry and success in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Wai et al., 2010), even when other variables are accounted for. For these reasons, identifying factors that contribute to individual differences in spatial ability are largely important. Additionally, identifying which spatial abilities are responsible for these disparities in later STEM achievement is of importance. Recently, Mix and colleagues (2018) found that a 2-factor model (extrinsic/intrinsic) is an efficient way of categorizing spatial abilities by way of a confirmatory factor analysis. Intrinsic spatial tasks require the understanding of features of an object (for example, size and shape) whereas extrinsic spatial tasks require the understanding of the relation between two or more objects in space. This model is the most widely accepted in current research in the field of spatial cognition. Using this model, we aim to determine whether performance in extrinsic spatial tasks or intrinsic spatial tasks is most predictive of achievement in STEM courses in the present study. Undergraduate students from Florida International University (FIU) who had completed Calculus I or Physics I were asked to complete an online questionnaire composed of an intrinsic spatial task (Mental Rotation Test; Peters, 1995), an extrinsic spatial task (The Perspective Taking Spatial Orientation Task; Hegarty & Walker, 2004), self-report of grades in courses related to STEM (introductory Physics and Calculus), and a demographic information questionnaire through the Qualtrics data collection system. The Mental Rotation Test requires participants to rotate figures mentally. The Perspective Taking Spatial Orientation Task requires participants to answer questions considering different perspectives. Data collection is ongoing with 71 participants up to date. Upon completion of data collection, we plan to conduct a series of multiple regressions examining whether intrinsic spatial ability and/or extrinsic spatial ability significantly predict achievement in STEM courses when controlling for verbal ability. The premise of this study is innovative in that STEM majors are being recruited to participate, rather than psychology students, which is what has typically been done in the field. This study’s findings would increase knowledge about why there are individual differences in STEM entry and achievement. Additionally, since we know that spatial ability is malleable (Sorby et al., 2013; Uttal et al., 2013), this study’s findings could be utilized to develop interventions that specifically target the type of spatial ability that is most indicative of STEM success in order to promote overall higher entry and achievement in STEM. Further, these proposed spatial interventions could be used to address the underrepresentation of women in the STEM professions by encouraging the development of spatial interventions for women.