Tag: 18. Juli 2018

Räumliches Denken und mathematische Fähigkeiten

/ Christian - Alles Evolution / 43 Kommentare

Eine interessante Studie behandelt die Frage, inwiefern räumliches Denken und mathematische Fähigkeiten in einem Zusammenhang stehen:

Despite considerable interest in the role of spatial intelligence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) achievement, little is known about the ontogenetic origins of individual differences in spatial aptitude or their relation to later accomplishments in STEM disciplines. The current study provides evidence that spatial processes present in infancy predict interindividual variation in both spatial and mathematical competence later in development. Using a longitudinal design, we found that children’s performance on a brief visuospatial change-detection task administered between 6 and 13 months of age was related to their spatial aptitude (i.e., mental-transformation skill) and mastery of symbolic-math concepts at 4 years of age, even when we controlled for general cognitive abilities and spatial memory. These results suggest that nascent spatial processes present in the first year of life not only act as precursors to later spatial intelligence but also predict math achievement during childhood.

Quelle: Spatial Processing in Infancy Predicts Both Spatial and Mathematical Aptitude in Childhood (Volltext)

Aus den Werten:

Räumliches Denken und Mathematik

Räumliches Denken und Mathematik

Also niedrige bis mittlere Werte.

Aus einer Besprechung der Studie:

Spatial reasoning measured in infancy predicts how children do at math at four years of age, finds a new study published in Psychological Science.

„We’ve provided the earliest documented evidence for a relationship between spatial reasoning and math ability,“ says Emory University psychologist Stella Lourenco, whose lab conducted the research. „We’ve shown that spatial reasoning beginning early in life, as young as six months of age, predicts both the continuity of this ability and mathematical development.“

Was dem Patriarchat wenig Zeit lässt für eine Unterdrückung, aber hoch effektiv wie es ist hat es das sicherlich dennoch geschafft.

Emory graduate student Jillian Lauer is co-author of the study.

The researchers controlled the longitudinal study for general cognitive abilities of the children, including measures such as vocabulary, working memory, short-term spatial memory and processing speed.

„Our results suggest that it’s not just a matter of smarter infants becoming smarter four-year-olds,“ Lourenco says. „Instead, we believe that we’ve honed in on something specific about early spatial reasoning and math ability.“

Gerade wenn es eine eigene „Fähigkeit“ auf dem Bereich gibt, dann kann es dort natürlich dann auch Unterschiede  und besondere Begabungen geben, die gerade diesen Bereich betreffen.

The findings may help explain why some people embrace math while others feel they are bad at it and avoid it. „We know that spatial reasoning is a malleable skill that can be improved with training,“ Lourenco says. „One possibility is that more focus should be put on spatial reasoning in early math education.“

Es dürfte auch erklären, warum einige dieses Training mehr Spass macht oder sie sogar von sich aus eher „Training“ in diesem Bereich betreiben, einfach in dem die Kinder zB lieber mit Spielzeug spielen, was diese Fähigkeiten fordert, während Kinder, die in dem Bereich nicht gut sind, keinen Spass an diesem Spielzeug haben.

Previous research has shown that superior spatial aptitude at 13 years of age predicts professional and creative accomplishments in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math more than 30 years later.

To explore whether individual differences in spatial aptitude are present earlier, Lourenco’s lab tested 63 infants, ages six months to 13 months, for a visual-spatial skill known as mental transformation, or the ability to transform and rotate objects in „mental space.“ Mental transformation is considered a hallmark of spatial intelligence.

The researchers showed the babies a series of paired video streams. Both streams presented a series of two matching shapes, similar to Tetris tile pieces, which changed orientation in each presentation. In one of the video streams, the two shapes in every third presentation rotated to become mirror images. In the other video stream, the shapes only appeared in non-mirror orientations. Eye tracking technology recorded which video stream the infants looked at, and for how long.

This type of experiment is called a change-detection paradigm. „Babies have been shown to prefer novelty,“ Lourenco explains. „If they can engage in mental transformation and detect that the pieces occasionally rotate into a mirror position, that’s interesting to them because of the novelty.“

Eye-tracking technology allowed the researchers to measure where the babies looked, and for how long. As a group, the infants looked significantly longer at the video stream with mirror images, but there were individual differences in the amount of time they looked at it.

Fifty-three of the children, or 84 percent of the original sample, returned at age four to complete the longitudinal study. The participants were again tested for mental transformation ability, along with mastery of simple symbolic math concepts. The results showed that the children who spent more time looking at the mirror stream of images as infants maintained these higher mental transformation abilities at age four, and also performed better on the math problems.

Langzeitstudien sind bei so etwas immer interessant. Und bereits sehr junge Kinder können die verschiedensten Nachrichten über geschlechtliche Fähigkeiten in dem Bereich auch noch nicht aufgenommen haben.

High-level symbolic math came relatively late in human evolution. Previous research has suggested that symbolic math may have co-opted circuits of the brain involved in spatial reasoning as a foundation to build on.

„Our work may contribute to our understanding of the nature of mathematics,“ Lourenco says. „By showing that spatial reasoning is related to individual differences in math ability, we’ve added to a growing literature suggesting a potential contribution for spatial reasoning in mathematics. We can now test the causal role that spatial reasoning may play early in life.“

In addition to helping improve regular early math education, the finding could help in the design of interventions for children with math disabilities. Dyscalculia, for example, is a developmental disorder that interferes with doing even simple arithmetic.

„Dyscalculia has an estimated prevalence of five to seven percent, which is roughly the same as dyslexia,“ Lourenco says. „Dyscalculia, however, has generally received less attention, despite math’s importance to our technological world.“

Ich finde die Studie auch gerade interessant, weil Geschlechterunterschiede im räumlichen Denken sehr gut belegt sind und auch viele Studien dazu existieren, die eine Abhängigkeit vom (pränatalen) Testosteronspiegel sehen:

Es passt insoweit, dass diese in jungen Jahren bereits erkennbar sind.

Dazu auch hier im Blog: