Importance Of Spatial Ability Research Articles

Improving Audit Quality with Data Analytic Visualizations: The Importance of Spatial Abilities and Feedback in Anomaly Identification

SYNOPSIS Public accounting firms and internal audit departments are implementing data analytics to enhance effectiveness and efficiency; however, there is a shortage of professionals with data analysis skills and the ability to derive meaningful insights. We conducted a quasiexperiment to examine whether and how individuals’ spatial abilities and types of feedback are related to anomaly identification performance. We predict and find that those with higher spatial abilities choose better visualizations and, in turn, are more accurate at anomaly identification. Auditors with lower spatial abilities can choose better visualizations and more accurately identify anomalies when they are provided task property feedback (i.e., feedback about the process) rather than outcome feedback or no feedback. Finally, a combination of high spatial abilities and task property feedback significantly reduces the number of false positive anomalies identified for all auditors. Our findings suggest practitioners should consider measuring spatial abilities during recruitment and when assigning visualization tasks.

Improving Audit Quality with Data Analytics: The Importance of Spatial Abilities and Feedback in Anomaly Identification

Improving Audit Quality with Data Analytics: The Importance of Spatial Abilities and Feedback in Anomaly Identification

Spatial Ability: A Neglected Talent in Educational and Occupational Settings

For over 60 years, longitudinal research on tens of thousands of high ability and intellectually precocious youth has consistently revealed the importance of spatial ability for hands-on creative accomplishments and the development of expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) disciplines. Yet, individual differences in spatial ability are seldom assessed for educational counseling and selection. Students especially talented in spatial visualization relative to their status on mathematical and verbal reasoning are particularly likely to be underserved by our educational institutions. Evidence for the importance of assessing spatial ability is reviewed and ways to utilize information about individual differences in this attribute in learning and work settings are offered. The literature reviewed stresses the importance of spatial ability in real-world settings and constitutes a rare instance in the social sciences where more research is not needed. What is needed is the incorporation of spatial ability into talent identification procedures and research on curriculum development and training, along with other cognitive abilities harboring differential—and incremental—validity for socially valued outcomes beyond IQ (or, g, general intelligence).

Expanding Talent Search Procedures by Including Measures of Spatial Ability: CTY's Spatial Test Battery

The importance of spatial ability for success in a variety of domains, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), is widely acknowledged. Yet, students with high spatial ability are rarely identified, as Talent Searches for academically talented students focus on identifying high mathematical and verbal abilities. Consequently, students with high spatial abilities who do not also have high math or verbal abilities may not qualify. In an effort to identify students with spatial talent, the Center for Talented Youth developed a Spatial Test Battery to supplement its mathematical and verbal Talent Searches. This article traces the development of the battery; describes its components, important psychometric properties, and continuing development; and encourages its use by researchers and educators interested in developing spatial talent.

The importance of spatial ability and mental models in learning anatomy

Previous studies have shown that spatial ability contributes significantly to the process of learning anatomy. While little has been done to understand the underlying mental processes, it has been assumed that students “acquire” mental models, or representations, of three-dimensional anatomical concepts by simply studying anatomy. Our study aims to understand the processes that students, with different levels of spatial ability, use to create mental models of anatomical structures. The Purdue Visualization of Rotations Test (ROT) was administered to 124 first-year medical and veterinary students. Our results indicate that professional students scored well above the general college population (mean ranges from 11.66 to 14.2) on the ROT. Interviews aimed at understanding the cognitive processes involved in the creation of mental models were conducted with students based on their ROT scores. Our findings indicate that high spatial ability students tend to integrate photographic images, line-drawings, and written and spoken descriptions into elaborate mental models of anatomical structures; while lower spatial ability students tend to be confused by written descriptions of anatomical structures and tend to rely more heavily on the course instructors for information. These findings will be used to develop innovative learning strategies to aid students in learning anatomical structures more effectively. Grant Funding Source: none

Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance.

The importance of spatial ability in educational pursuits and the world of work was examined, with particular attention devoted to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) domains. Participants were drawn from a stratified random sample of U.S. high schools (Grades 9–12, N 400,000) and were tracked for 11 years; their longitudinal findings were aligned with pre-1957 findings and with contemporary data from the Graduate Record Examination and the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth. For decades, spatial ability assessed during adolescence has surfaced as a salient psychological attribute among those adolescents who subsequently go on to achieve advanced educational credentials and occupations in STEM. Results solidify the generalization that spatial ability plays a critical role in developing expertise in STEM and suggest, among other things, that including spatial ability in modern talent searches would identify many adolescents with potential for STEM who are currently being missed.

Spatial ability, experience, and skill in laparoscopic surgery

Background Previous research showing correlations between spatial ability and surgical skills has used participants in relatively early stages of training. Research in skill acquisition has shown that the role of cognitive abilities can diminish as skills become increasingly automatic. In this study, we explored the role of spatial ability in laparoscopic surgical skills in two groups, one experienced and the other relatively inexperienced. Methods Subjects were recruited from two videoscopic courses: an advanced course for experienced surgeons and a laparoscopic urological surgery course attended by participants with relatively little laparoscopic experience. Three measures were obtained: spatial abilities, videoscopic experience, and operative skills. Results A significant correlation ( r = 0.393) was found between spatial ability and skills in the lower experience group but not among the experienced surgeons ( r = 0.020). Conclusions The results are consistent with the prediction that the importance of spatial ability in performance of laparoscopic skills should diminish with experience.

The Influence of Spatial Abilities and Age in Using Telephone Menu Systems

Previous research has demonstrated the importance of spatial abilities in the performance of computer-based tasks, most of which involve menu navigation. This has been found among younger and older adults. Spatial abilities are usually thought to be composed of two distinct sub-factors: spatial visualization and spatial orientation. Various spatial abilities have been shown to exhibit normative declines with age suggesting that older adults may have trouble using computer-based technologies. The current research aims to examine the role of the different types of spatial abilities in the successful use of telephone menu systems.

Computerized information retrieval: individual differences in the use of spatial vs nonspatial navigational information.

Although a number of experiments have demonstrated the importance of spatial ability as a predictor of computer-based performance, there is little evidence relating to the mechanics of this association or the implications for interface design. Two experiments on the relative importance of spatial and nonspatial semantic information within the context of computerized information retrieval are described. The first experiment indicated that spatial ability did not interact with the spatial information content of the computer interface. The second experiment indicated that the effects of spatial ability are attenuated when additional nonspatial semantic information is provided.

A Model of Statistics Achievement Using Spatial Ability, Feminist Attitudes and Mathematics-Related Variables as Predictors

Subjects for this study were graduate students enrolled in inferential statistics classes at a midwestern university. The study was conducted to determine the importance of spatial ability, attitudes toward mathematics, mathematical background, masculinity-femininity of interest pattern, attitudes toward feminist issues, student sex, and verbal and mathematical ability as predictors of achievement in applied statistics courses for male and female students. Regression analyses were performed comparing full versus restricted models. The amount of variance in statistics achievement accounted for in the full model which included all the previously mentioned sets of predictor variables was .60. The most important predictor variable set was attitudes toward feminist issues (reduction in R2 = .1861). Sex-related differences were found on all variable sets except verbal and mathematical ability.