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A Dissociation Between Two Classes of Spatial Abilities in Elementary School Children

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Spatial Cognition XI (Spatial Cognition 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 11034))

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Abstract

This study investigates whether the abilities to mentally manipulate an imagined object (object manipulation abilities) and the abilities to coordinate perspectives of mental movement of the imagined self (egocentric perspective transformation abilities) are distinct classes of spatial abilities in elementary school children. We developed a paper-and-pencil test with measures of mental rotations and folding and a wide range of perspective taking tasks. 240 fourth graders were tested. By comparing different models in a confirmatory factor analysis, we found that there is a partial dissociation between object manipulation spatial abilities and perspective transformation abilities. The results specify the degree of overlap, and sex differences concerning the measures but not the underlying constructs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Mathematics and Its Didactics, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany

    Cathleen Heil

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  1. Cathleen Heil
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Correspondence to Cathleen Heil .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

    Sarah Creem-Regehr

  2. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Johannes Schöning

  3. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Alexander Klippel

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Heil, C. (2018). A Dissociation Between Two Classes of Spatial Abilities in Elementary School Children. In: Creem-Regehr, S., Schöning, J., Klippel, A. (eds) Spatial Cognition XI. Spatial Cognition 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11034. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96385-3_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96385-3_16

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96384-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96385-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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