Spatial ability, visual imagery, and mathematical performance

Abstract

116 Foundation Year Engineering Students, at the University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea, were given a battery of mathematical and spatial tests; in addition, their preferred modes of processing mathematical information were determined by means of an instrument recently developed in Australia by Suwarsono. Correlational analysis revealed that students who preferred to process mathematical information by verbal-logical means tended to outperform more visual students on mathematical tests. Multiple regression and factor analyses pointed to the existence of a distinct cognitive trait associated with the processing of mathematical information. Also, spatial ability and knowledge of spatial conventions had less influence on mathematical performance than could have been expected from recent relevant literature.