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Try mentally rotating these figures. |
The ability to represent and process spatial information is important for many common activities, such as finding our way to and from places in the environment, moving furniture, packing a suitcase, and catching a ball. We are aware that people differ in spatial abilities. We know that some acquaintances have a better sense of direction than others, that not everyone is cut out to be a pilot, and that only some people are able to visualize the complex spatial relations between atoms in an organic compound. Do all of these activities rely on a single "spatial ability" or do they depend on different types of spatial ability? In the spatial thinking lab, we are studying dissociations and relations between different aspects of spatial ability. For example, we have studied the relations between large-scale spatial abilities used in learning spatial layout and small-scale spatial abilities, such as mental rotation. We have found that individual differences in perspective taking and spatial layout learning are dissociable from object-based spatial abilities, such as mental rotation, but also share some common variance with these small-scale abilities. We are interested in both the nature and nurture of spatial abilities, and in future work hope to understand both the biological bases of these abilities (using fMRI, hormonal and genetic analyses) and how they can be enhanced with instruction and training.
Spatial abilities are important determinants of success in many disciplines of science, such as biology, chemistry, and geology and in professions such as mechanic, airline pilot, surgeon and dentist. In the VIZMED project, currently funded by the National Science Foundation, we are examining the relation between spatial visualization abilities and performance in medicine and testing whether these abilities can be enhanced and trained with interactive 3-D visualizations, e.g. of anatomy. The goals of this project are (1) understand the cognitive abilities involved in learning anatomy and how these abilities influence learning from visualizations, (2) to test the effectiveness of different types of computer visualizations and (3) to apply the resulting findings to medical education.
As our lab develops useful research instruments, we are happy to share them with the research community. However note that most of the psychometric measures that we use in our research are copyrighted by the publishers, so we are not able to distribute them to other laboratories.
Hegarty, M., Keehner, M., Khooshabeh, P. & Montello, D. R. (in press). How spatial ability enhances, and is enhanced by, dental education. Learning and Individual Differences. [PDF]
Kozhevnikov, M., Motes, M., Hegarty, M. (in press) Spatial visualization in physics problem solving. Cognitive Science, 31, 549-579. [PDF]
Hegarty, M., Keehner, M., Cohen, C., Montello, D. R., & Lippa, Y. (2007). The role of spatial cognition in medicine: Applications for selecting and training professionals. In G. Allen (Ed.) Applied Spatial Cognition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hegarty, M., Montello, D. R., Richardson, A. E., Ishikawa, T. and Lovelace, K. (2006) Spatial Abilities at Different Scales: Individual Differences in Aptitude-Test Performance and Spatial-Layout Learning. Intelligence, 34, 151-176. [PDF]
Keehner, M., Lippa, Y., Montello, D. R., Tendick, F., & Hegarty, M (2006). Learning a spatial skill for surgery: How the contributions of abilities change with practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 487-503. [PDF]
Hegarty, M. & Waller, D. (2006). Individual differences in spatial abilities. In P. Shah & A. Miyake (Eds.). Handbook of Visuospatial Thinking. Cambridge University Press.
Keehner, M. M., Tendick, F. Meng, M.V. Anwar, H.P. Hegarty, M. Stoller, M.L. and Duh. Q. Y. (2004). Spatial ability, experience, and skill in laparoscopic surgery, American Journal of Surgery, 188, 71-75.[PDF]
Hegarty. M. & Waller, D. (2004). A dissociation between mental rotation and perspective-taking spatial abilities. Intelligence, 32, 175-191. [PDF]
Hegarty, M. Richardson, A. E., Montello, D. R., Lovelace, K & Subbiah, I. (2002). Development of a Self-Report Measure of Environmental Spatial Ability. Intelligence, 30, 425-447. [PDF]
Kozhevnikov, M., Hegarty, M. & Mayer, R. E. (2002). Revising the visualizer/verbalizer dimension: Evidence for two types of visualizers. Cognition and Instruction, 20, 47-77.
Kozhevnikov, M., Hegarty, M. & Mayer, R. E. (2002). Spatial abilities in kinematics problem solving. In M. Anderson, B. Meyer & P. Olivier (Eds). Diagrammatic Representation and Reasoning (pp.155 – 171). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Miyake, A., Rettinger, D. A., Friedman, N. P., Shah, P & Hegarty, M. (2001). Visuospatial working memory, executive functioning and spatial abilities. How are they related? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 621-640.
Kozhevnikov, M. & Hegarty, M. (2001). A dissociation between object-manipulation and perspective-taking spatial abilities. Memory & Cognition, 29, 745-756.
Hegarty, M., Shah, P & Miyake, A. (2000). Constraints on using the dual-task methodology to specify the degree of central executive involvement in cognitive tasks. Memory & Cognition, 28, 376-385.
Hegarty, M. & Kozhevnikov, M. (1999). Types of visual-spatial representations and mathematical problem solving. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 684-689.
Department of Psychology • University of California, Santa Barbara