Visual-spatial Tasks Research Articles

Student perspectives of the spatial thinking components embedded in a topographic map activity using an augmented-reality sandbox

Spatial thinking skills are crucial for success in any of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) domains, and they are malleable. One approach to support the development of student spatial skills is through the use of innovative technologies, like the augmented reality (AR) sandbox, that can also effectively teach geoscience content in the process. In this study, we aimed to create a student-informed spatial topographic map activity designed to emphasize mental rotation, spatial orientation, and spatial visualization skills using the AR sandbox that incorporated elements such as drawing topographic profiles and recognizing stream flow direction. Furthermore, this study explored the spatial reasoning beliefs and challenges of undergraduate students at a large-enrollment Southeastern US university. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were employed to better understand student performance on and challenges with the topographic map and spatial tasks. Overall, the students found spatial visualization tasks in the activity to be the most challenging, and they were least confident in their spatial visualization skills. However, they believed that their spatial visualization skills were most improved after completing the topographic map activity, and those activities were reported to be the most effective at getting them to think in spatial terms. These results highlight that multi-step mental manipulations required to perform spatial visualization tasks are of great interest to instructors when developing topographic map activities using the AR sandbox. With more investigation, the AR sandbox has the potential to aid in the development of students’ spatial visualization skills while simultaneously teaching geological content. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2021.1969862

Beyond motor recovery after stroke: The role of hand robotic rehabilitation plus virtual reality in improving cognitive function

Robot-assisted hand training adopting end-effector devices results in an additional reduction of motor impairment in comparison to usual care alone in different stages of stroke recovery. These devices often allow the patient to perform practical, attentive, and visual-spatial tasks in a semi-virtual reality (VR) setting. We aimed to investigate whether the hand end-effector robotic device AmadeoTM could improve cognitive performance, beyond the motor deficit, as compared to the same amount of occupational treatment focused on the hand. Forty-eight patients (aged 54.3 ± 10.5 years, 62.5% female) affected by either ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in the chronic phase were enrolled in the study. The experimental group (EG) underwent AmadeoTM robotic training, while the control group (CG) performed occupational therapy involving the upper limb. Patients were assessed at the beginning and at the end of the rehabilitation protocol using a specific neuropsychological battery, as well as motor function tests. The EG showed greater improvements in different cognitive domains, including attentive abilities and executive functions, as well as in hand motor function, as compared to CG. Our study showed that task-oriented VR-based robotic rehabilitation enhanced not only motor function in the paretic arm but also global and specific cognitive abilities in post-stroke patients. We may argue that the hand robotic plus VR-based training may provide patients with an integration of cognitive and motor skill rehabilitation, thus amplifying the functional outcome achievement.

Sensitivity of the Spatial Distribution of Fixations to Variations in the Type of Task Demand and Its Relation to Visual Entropy.

Ocular activity is known to be sensitive to variations in mental workload, and recent studies have successfully related the distribution of eye fixations to the mental load. This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of the spatial distribution of fixations as a measure of mental workload and its sensitivity to different types of demands imposed by the task: mental, temporal, and physical. To test the research hypothesis, two experimental studies were run: Experiment 1 evaluated the sensitivity of an index of spatial distribution (Nearest Neighbor Index; NNI) to changes in workload. A sample of 30 participants participated in a within-subject design with different types of task demands (mental, temporal, physical) applied to Tetris game; Experiment 2 investigated the accuracy of the index through the analysis of 1-min epochs during the execution of a visual-spatial task (the “spot the differences” puzzle game). Additionally, NNI was compared to a better-known ocular mental workload index, the entropy rate. The data analysis showed a relation between the NNI and the different workload levels imposed by the tasks. In particular: Experiment 1 demonstrated that increased difficulty, due to higher temporal demand, led to a more dispersed pattern with respect to the baseline, whereas the mental demand led to a more grouped pattern of fixations with respect to the baseline; Experiment 2 indicated that the entropy rate and the NNI show a similar pattern over time, indicating high mental workload after the first minute of activity. That suggests that NNI highlights the greater presence of fixation groups and, accordingly, the entropy indicates a more regular and orderly scanpath. Both indices are sensitive to changes in workload and they seem to anticipate the drop in performance. However, the entropy rate is limited by the use of the areas of interest, making it impossible to apply it in dynamic contexts. Conversely, NNI works with the entire scanpath and it shows sensitivity to different types of task demands. These results confirm the NNI as a measure applicable to different contexts and its potential use as a trigger in adaptive systems implemented in high-risk settings, such as control rooms and transportation systems.

Developmental Trajectories in Spatial Visualization and Mental Rotation in Individuals with Down Syndrome.

Background. The analysis of developmental trajectories of visuospatial abilities in individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) remains an unexplored field of investigation to examine in depth. The study aimed to fill such a gap by examining changes in two visuospatial abilities: spatial visualization (the ability to manage spatial stimuli) and mental rotation (the ability to rotate spatial stimuli). Method. Eighty-seven participants with DS, aged between 7 and 53 years (forty-seven males and forty females), completed spatial visualization and mental rotation tasks. Changes in these two abilities were analyzed in relation to chronological age and developmental level, the latter derived from Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices. Results. Chronological age was linearly associated with spatial visualization performance, whereas mental rotation performance increased until 14 years of age and then decreased. Developmental level was linearly associated with increased performance in spatial visualization, the trend in mental rotation was segmented with an increase after 5 years of age. Furthermore, developmental trajectories in mental rotation depended on the rotation degree. Conclusion. Chronological age explains a modest quote of variance. Developmental level better describes changes in spatial visualization and mental rotation of individuals with DS.

Motor and Visual-spatial Cognitive Abilities in Children Treated for Infantile Esotropia.

While many studies have investigated links between motor and visual spatial cognitive abilities in typically developing children, only a few studies have tested this link among children with innate handicaps. Therefore, we assessed motor abilities (using the M-ABC-2) and visual spatial cognitive skills (using the Block Design subtest of the WPPSI-III and a picture mental rotation task, PRT) of 5-7 year old typically developing children (n= 17) and same-aged children with severe deficits in stereopsis due to infantile esotropia (n= 17). Compared to the typically developing children, children with esotropia showed significantly poorer motor performances, especially in manual dexterity and ball skills, and significantly poorer and slower performance on the visual spatial cognitive tasks. Especially the girls treated for infantile esotropia needed more time to mentally rotate the pictures of the PRT correctly. Overall, this study showed that perceptual, motor and cognitive processes are interconnected and that children treated for infantile esotropia had an increased risk of motor and visual spatial cognitive deficits.

Brain activity underlying response induced by SNARC-congruent and SNARC-incongruent stimuli

At least three well-documented phenomena indicate a relationship between numbers and the internal representation of space. They are shifting attention in accordance with the localization of numbers on the mental number line (MNL); the spatial‑numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, which manifests as faster responses to high numbers with the right hand than with the left, and vice versa for low numbers; and the processing of both numbers and space primarily in the parietal cortex. Some EEG studies have pointed to the response selection stage as a locus of this effect. However, this explanation has yet to be corroborated by the fMRI experiments. The goal of this study was to investigate the functional anatomy underlying response selection induced by SNARC‑congruent and SNARC‑incongruent stimuli in a spatial visual cueing task. Healthy adult volunteers responded to a pair of target stimuli consisting of digits, non‑digit symbols, or a mix of both. In each trial, the stimuli were preceded by a centrally presented numerical or non‑numerical cue stimulus which was required to be memorized. One of the target stimuli that then appeared would be identical to the cue; the task was to determine which side it was presented on, within the pair. In the case of numerical stimuli, the side was congruent with its localization on the MNL in one‑half of the trials. In the other half of the trials, it was incongruent. The behavioral results revealed the SNARC effect, as well as a faster reaction to low numbers than to high numbers. The fMRI responses to the target stimuli showed engagement of regions implicated in number processing but also in sensory‑motor areas. This suggests that the motor response selection or execution stage may be the locus of the SNARC effect. Yet, the activation pattern obtained in the congruent and incongruent conditions did not allow us to determine, indisputably, the neural correlates of the mechanisms involved in the SNARC effect. Moreover, we did not observe any stimulus-specific responses to cues.

Dual task interference on early perceptual processing

When two tasks, Task 1 and Task 2, are conducted in close temporal proximity and a separate speeded response is required for each target (T1 and T2), T2 report performance decreases as a function of its temporal proximity to T1. This so-called psychological refractory period (PRP) effect on T2 processing is largely assumed to reflect interference from T1 response selection on T2 response selection. However, interference on early perceptual processing of T2 has been observed in a modified paradigm, which required changes in visual-spatial attention, sensory modality, task modality, and response modality across targets. The goal of the present study was to investigate the possibility of early perceptual interference by systematically and iteratively removing each of these possible non perceptual confounds, in a series of four experiments. To assess T2 visual memory consolidation success, T2 was presented for a varying duration and immediately masked. T2 report accuracy, which was taken as a measure of perceptual—encoding or consolidation—success, decreased across all experimental control conditions as T1–T2 onset proximity increased. We argue that our results, in light of previous studies, show that central processing of a first target, responsible for the classical PRP effect, also interferes with early perceptual processing of a second target. We end with a discussion of broader implications for psychological refractory period and attentional blink effects.

Linked Sources of Neural Noise Contribute to Age-related Cognitive Decline.

Healthy aging is associated with a multitude of structural changes in the brain. These physical age-related changes are accompanied by increased variability in neural activity of all kinds, and this increased variability, collectively referred to as "neural noise," is argued to contribute to age-related cognitive decline. In this study, we examine the relationship between two particular types of neural noise in aging. We recorded scalp EEG from younger (20-30 years old) and older (60-70 years old) adults performing a spatial visual discrimination task. First, we used the 1/f-like exponent of the EEG power spectrum, a putative marker of neural noise, to assess baseline shifts toward a noisier state in aging. Next, we examined age-related decreases in the trial-by-trial consistency of visual stimulus processing. Finally, we examined to what extent these two age-related noise markers are related, hypothesizing that greater baseline noise would increase the variability of stimulus-evoked responses. We found that visual cortical baseline noise was higher in older adults, and the consistency of older adults' oscillatory alpha (8-12 Hz) phase responses to visual targets was also lower than that of younger adults. Crucially, older adults with the highest levels of baseline noise also had the least consistent alpha phase responses, whereas younger adults with more consistent phase responses achieved better behavioral performance. These results establish a link between tonic neural noise and stimulus-associated neural variability in aging. Moreover, they suggest that tonic age-related increases in baseline noise might diminish sensory processing and, as a result, subsequent cognitive performance.

Hierarchical Development of Early Visual-Spatial Abilities - A Taxonomy Based Assessment Using the MaGrid App.

Visual-spatial abilities (VSA) are considered a building block of early numerical development. They are intuitively acquired in early childhood and differentiate in further development. However, when children enter school, there already are considerable individual differences in children’s visual-spatial and numerical abilities. To better understand this diversity, it is necessary to empirically evaluate the development as well as the latent structure of early VSA as proposed by the 2 by 2 taxonomy of Newcombe and Shipley (2015). In the present study, we report on a tablet-based assessment of VSA using the digital application (app) MaGrid in kindergarten children aged 4–6 years. We investigated whether the visual-spatial tasks implemented in MaGrid are sensitive to replicate previously observed age differences in VSA and thus a hierarchical development of VSA. Additionally, we evaluated whether the selected tasks conform to the taxonomy of VSA by Newcombe and Shipley (2015) applying a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach. Our results indicated that the hierarchical development of VSA can be measured using MaGrid. Furthermore, the CFA substantiated the hypothesized factor structure of VSA in line with the dimensions proposed in the taxonomy of Newcombe and Shipley (2015). Taken together, the present results advance our knowledge to the (hierarchical) development as well as the latent structure of early VSA in kindergarten children.

STEM words and their multiple meanings: the intricacies of asking a clarifying question

ABSTRACT Shared understanding is often achieved in communication interactions at the point in which the participants come to an agreement upon meaning. Without shared meaning, misunderstandings can lead to a breakdown in communication, and possibly failure on collaborative tasks. The purpose of the present study was to examine how students, preservice, and in-service teachers used different strategies to attempt to reach shared meaning during a spatial visualization task in a STEM instructional context. The data included 15 transcribed recordings analyzed through constant comparative analysis to identify the characteristics of the communication during clarification exchanges. Findings highlight three features of these exchanges: confirmation, rethinking, and misdirection. Within these exchanges, communication involved precise, technical language as well as analogous, everyday language to attempt to reach shared meaning. Exchanges that were successful (in moving toward task completion) illustrated the use of this language to affirm or move toward shared vocabulary. Unsuccessful exchanges (that hindered task completion) resulted from misunderstandings due to lack of shared language or meaning. Classroom implications for teaching and learning include recognizing that everyday language and technical language can potentially serve as points of confusion, and embracing the importance of accurately assessing and responding to students’ current understandings.

Spatial attention enhances network, cellular and subthreshold responses in mouse visual cortex

Internal brain states strongly modulate sensory processing during behaviour. Studies of visual processing in primates show that attention to space selectively improves behavioural and neural responses to stimuli at the attended locations. Here we develop a visual spatial task for mice that elicits behavioural improvements consistent with the effects of spatial attention, and simultaneously measure network, cellular, and subthreshold activity in primary visual cortex. During trial-by-trial behavioural improvements, local field potential (LFP) responses to stimuli detected inside the receptive field (RF) strengthen. Moreover, detection inside the RF selectively enhances excitatory and inhibitory neuron responses to task-irrelevant stimuli and suppresses noise correlations and low frequency LFP fluctuations. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings reveal that detection inside the RF increases synaptic activity that depolarizes membrane potential responses at the behaviorally relevant location. Our study establishes that mice display fundamental signatures of visual spatial attention spanning behavioral, network, cellular, and synaptic levels, providing new insight into rapid cognitive enhancement of sensory signals in visual cortex.

Studies in the Mentality of Literates: 1. Conceptual Structure and Aspects of Visual Perception.

We studied visual-perceptual abilities of individuals with different levels of education (including adult illiterates) in Brazil (N = 136) and in Estonia (N = 560) with person-oriented methods of data analysis. Our aim was to discover whether dominant type of word meaning structure (WMS) can define the "Great Divide", the single breaking point that universally defines certain direction of subsequent to it cultural evolution. We particularly focused on the everyday concept-logical concept shift that takes place in the formal education system. We found that logical concepts were rarely available for illiterates; availability of logical conceptual thought increases together with the level of education. Most illiterates were able to find figures of concrete objects from complex overlapping and embedded contour figures but none of them could find all abstract figures from the same complex figures. Also none of the illiterates could perform beyond chance level in both mental rotation tasks together. Ability to perform correctly on all visual-spatial tasks increased with the increase in logical concepts and with the increasing level of education. The distribution of respondents according to the WMS level, level of education, and performance on the visual-spatial tasks indicated that individuals are developmentally heterogeneous: achievement of the tertiary level of education and logical conceptual thinking mechanisms does not guarantee high level performance on the visual-spatial tasks. The results are in agreement with the theory of unilineal hierarchic cultural evolution. Individual psychic development and cultural evolution can be both understood in terms of the WMS development.

Self-Referential Processing Can Modulate Visual Spatial Attention Deficits in Children With Dyslexia.

Considerable research has shown that children with dyslexia have deficits in visual spatial attention orientation. Additionally, self-referential processing makes self-related information play a unique role in the individual visual spatial attention orientation. However, it is unclear whether such self-referential processing impacts the visual spatial attention orientation of children with dyslexia. Therefore, we manipulated the reference task systematically in the cue-target paradigm and investigated the modulation effect of self-referential processing on visual spatial attention of children with dyslexia. In the self-referential processing condition, we observed that children with dyslexia demonstrated stable cue effects in the visual spatial attention orientation tasks when the Stimulus Onset Asynchronies (SOAs) were set to 100 ms, while other-referential processing weakened the cue effects of the visual spatial attention orientation of children with dyslexia. With cue effect as the index, we also observed that the self-referential processing had a significant larger regulatory effect at the early stage of visual spatial attention orientation, as compared with other-referential processing. These differences have a high-ranked consistency between children with dyslexia and typically developing reader. The results suggested that self-referential processing can regulate the visual spatial attention deficits of children with dyslexia.

Evidence for early top-down modulation of attention to salient visual cues through probe detection.

The influence of top-down attentional control on the selection of salient visual stimuli has been examined extensively. Some accounts suggest all salient stimuli capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner, while others suggest salient stimuli capture attention contingent on top-down relevance. Evidence consistently shows target templates allow only salient stimuli sharing a target's features to capture attention, while salient stimuli not sharing a target's features do not. A number of hypotheses (e.g., contingent orienting, disengagement, signal suppression) from both sides of this debate have been proposed; however, most predict similar performance in the visual search and spatial cuing tasks. The present study combined a cuing task, in which subjects identified a target defined by its having a unique feature, with a probe identification task developed by Gaspelin, Leonard, and Luck (Psychological Science, 26, 1740-1750, 2015), in which subjects identified letters appearing in potential target locations just after the appearance of a salient cue that matched or did not match the target-defining feature. The probe task provided a measure of where attention was focused just after the cue's appearance. In six experiments, we observed top-down modulation of spatial cuing effects in response times and probe identification: Probes in the cued location were identified more often, but more when preceded by a cue that shared the target-defining feature. Though not unequivocal, the results are explained in terms of the on-going debate over whether top-down attentional control can prevent bottom-up capture by salient, task-irrelevant stimuli.

Differential Involvement of Three Brain Regions during Mouse Skill Learning.

Human skill learning is marked by a gradual decrease in reaction time (RT) and errors as the skill is acquired. To better understand the influence of brain areas thought to be involved in skill learning, we trained mice to associate visual-spatial cues with specific motor behaviors for a water reward. Task acquisition occurred over weeks and performance approximated a power function as often found with human skill learning. Using optogenetics we suppressed the primary visual cortex (V1), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), or dorsal hippocampus (dHC) on 20% of trials at different stages of learning. Intermittent suppression of the V1 greatly reduced task performance on suppressed trials across multiple stages but did not change the overall rate of learning. In accord with some recent models of skill learning, ACC suppression produced higher error rates on suppressed trials throughout learning the skill, with effects intensifying in the later stages. This would suggest that cognitive influences mediated by the anterior cingulate continue throughout learning. Suppression of the hippocampus only modestly affected performance, with largely similar effects seen across stages. These results indicate different degrees of V1, ACC, and dHC involvement in acquisition and performance of this visual-spatial task and that the structures operate in parallel, and not in series, across learning stages.

Local and Global Influences of Visual Spatial Selection and Locomotion in Mouse Primary Visual Cortex

Sensory selection and movement locally and globally modulate neural responses in seemingly similar ways. For example, locomotion enhances visual responses in mouse primary visual cortex (V1), resembling the effects of spatial attention on primate visual cortical activity. However, interactions between these local and global mechanisms and the resulting effects on perceptual behavior remain largely unknown. Here, we describe a novel mouse visual spatial selection task in which animals either monitor one of two locations for a contrast change ("selective mice") or monitor both ("non-selective mice") and can run at will. Selective mice perform well only when their selected stimulus changes, giving rise to local electrophysiological changes in the corresponding hemisphere of V1 including decreased noise correlations and increased visual information. Non-selective mice perform well when either stimulus changes, giving rise to global changes across both hemispheres of V1. During locomotion, selective mice have worse behavioral performance, increased noise correlations in V1, and decreased visual information, while non-selective mice have decreased noise correlations in V1 but no change inperformance or visual information. Our findings demonstrate that mice can locally or globally enhance visual information, but the interaction of the global effect of locomotion with local selection impairs behavioral performance. Moving forward, this mouse model will facilitate future studies of local and global sensory modulatory mechanisms and their effects on behavior.

Trial-to-trial carryover effects on spatial attentional bias

Visual Probe Tasks (VPTs) have been extensively used to measure spatial attentional biases, but as usually analysed, VPTs do not consider trial-to-trial carryover effects of probe location: Does responding to a probe on, e.g., the location of a threat cue affect the bias on the subsequent trial? The aim of the current study was to confirm whether this kind of carryover exists, using a novel task version, the diagonalized VPT, designed to focus on such trial-to-trial interactions. Two versions of the task were performed by a sample of college students. In one version cues were coloured squares; in the other, cues were threat-related and neutral images. Both versions included partially random positive or negative response feedback and varying Cue-Probe Intervals (200 or 600 ms). Carryover effects were found in both versions. Responding to a probe at the location of a cue of a given colour induced an attentional bias on the subsequent trial in the direction of that colour. Responding to a threat-related cue induced an attentional bias towards threat on the subsequent trial. The results provide evidence that trial-to-trial carryover effects on spatial attentional bias indeed exist. A methodological implication is that previous probe location could be considered in analyses or re-analyses of spatial visual attention tasks.

Artists as experts in visual cognition: An update.

The question of whether and how visual artists see the world differently than nonartists has long engaged researchers and scholars in the arts, sciences, and humanities. Yet as evidence regarding this issue accumulates, it has become clear that the answers to these questions are by no means straightforward. With a view to advancing ongoing debate in this field, the current study aimed to replicate and extend previous research by exploring the differences in visual-spatial ability between art students (n = 42) and nonart students (n = 37), using a comprehensive battery of visual-spatial and drawing tasks. Art students outperformed nonart students on drawing measures and some (but not all) visual-spatial tasks. This nuanced pattern of results broadly supports the notion that art students differ from nonart students in their ability to exert top-down control over attentional processing, but not in the phenomenology of low-level visual processing. Implications for theories of artistic expertise are discussed.

Sex Differences in Temporal but Not Spatial Attentional Capture.

The accuracy of detecting or identifying a target decreases when a salient distractor is presented. This decrease is explained by the temporal or spatial diversion of attention to the distractor and thus is referred to as attentional capture. Using temporal and spatial visual search tasks, we examined whether there are sex differences in attentional capture. In Experiment 1A, a temporal visual search task measured attentional capture in the temporal domain by asking participants (97 men and 92 women) to identify a target embedded in a rapid stream of nontarget letters while ignoring a preceding peripheral distractor. In Experiment 2, a spatial visual search task measured attentional capture in the spatial domain by asking participants (146 men and 83 women) to detect a target among spatially distributed nontarget items while ignoring a distractor presented simultaneously. Our results indicate that attentional capture occurred in both tasks. In Experiment 1A, the magnitude of capture was significantly larger for women than men. In Experiment 1B, we confirmed sex differences in temporal attentional capture by recruiting a new set of participants (141 men and 85 women). In Experiment 2, the magnitude of capture was comparable between the sexes. These results suggest that women are more sensitive to bottom-up signals than men when they engage in a temporal search task and could be explained in terms of sex differences in the ability of adjusting the size of attentional window, within which attention is allocated to the most salient item.

Extreme Drawing Realism in Childhood

Precocious realists are children who are able to create realistic drawings that resemble those of adult artists. Is this talent a splinter skill, or is it associated with other kinds of high ability? We administered IQ and visual–spatial tasks to 12 precocious realists and compared their performance to a control group of children matched on age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) and asked their parents to complete questionnaires assessing their children’s personality traits. Precocious realism proved unrelated to either superior verbal or nonverbal IQs and proved related only to two of the five visual–spatial tasks we administered. Precocious realists scored higher on the trait of openness to experience and their parents described them as having extreme rage to master. Contrary to some previous claims, they did not show any elevated autistic-like traits. We conclude by making education recommendations for artistically gifted children.