The role of spatial abilities and self-assessments in cardinal point orientation across the lifespan

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2014.07.006

Learning and Individual Differences

Volume 35, October 2014, Pages 113-121

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.07.006 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Relationships between age, spatial skills and environment orientation (EO) were analyzed.
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WM accounted for the age-related variance in spatial abilities and self-assessments.
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The effect of age on EO was mediated by spatial abilities and positive self-assessments.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between age, spatial abilities, spatial self-assessments, working memory (WM) and environment knowledge, through an orientation task based on pointing in cardinal directions, across the adult lifespan using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. A group of 450 people from 20 to 91 years old was asked to point in the direction of cardinal points and to complete a set of spatial tasks, spatial questionnaires and WM measures. Results showed that, while spatial abilities and positive self-assessments mediated the influence of age on the ability to identify cardinal points, WM accounted for the age-related variance in spatial abilities and positive self-assessments. Age also had a direct influence on both positive and negative self-assessments. These findings indicate that both spatial cognitive abilities and spatial self-assessments have a crucial role in mediating the age effect on a measure of environment orientation.

Section snippets

Participants

The study involved 450 people from 20 to 91 years of age, divided into seven age brackets (people in their twenties to eighties), with 37 to 92 participants in each age group (see Table 1).

Participants were residents of various cities all over Italy. They were community dwellers and volunteers recruited by word of mouth. A health and demographic questionnaire was used to ensure that participants had no ongoing psychiatric or neurologic diseases (and were not taking any psychoactive drugs), and

Spatial tasks

Shortened versions (s) of tried and tested tasks (see the battery standardized by De Beni et al., 2014) were used, which preserved a good internal reliability, comparable with that of the original versions (see Table 2; see also Borella et al., 2014).

The short Embedded Figure Test (sEFT, adapted from Oltman et al., 1971) involves identifying simple shapes (shown separately) embedded in a more complex overall figure (10 items).

The short Mental Rotations Test (sMRT, adapted from Vandenberg &

Scoring

For the sEFT and sMRT, one point was awarded for each correct answer (two correct options for the sMRT and one correct option for the sEFT). For the sOPT we calculated the absolute degrees of error between the answers given and the right answer.

For the spatial self-assessment measures we calculated the sum of the Likert values for all items (for the SDSR and SAS) and for the two sub-aspects (for the AtOT).

For the WM tasks the final score corresponded to the length of the longest

Discussion

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between environment orientation – assessed in terms of a person's ability to point in cardinal directions from their position in their own home town (because this represents a modality to test environment knowledge; Montello & Raubal, 2012), age, objectively and subjectively-measured spatial skills, and WM throughout the adult lifespan. Although it has been demonstrated that aging coincides with a decline both in environment

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant awarded to Erika Borella by the University of Padova (CPDA110373/11).

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View full text

The role of spatial abilities and self-assessments in cardinal point orientation across the lifespan

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Spatial tasks

Scoring

Discussion

Acknowledgments

Intelligence

Journal of Memory and Language

Journal of Psychiatric Research

Intelligence

Intelligence

Cognitive Psychology

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Learning and Individual Differences

Learning and Individual Differences

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Individual differences in route-learning strategy and associated working memory resources

Human Factors

Comparative fit indexes in structural models

Psychological Bulletin

Age differences in text processing: The role of working memory, inhibition and processing speed

Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences

Visuo-spatial abilities across the life span

Developmental Psychology

Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences

The role of visuo-spatial working memory in map learning: New findings from a map drawing paradigm

Psychological Research

Human memory and the medial temporal region of the brain

BAC

Portfolio per la valutazione del benessere e delle abilità cognitive nell'età adulta e avanzata

Batteria VS. Abilità visuo-spaziali nell'arco di vita adulta

LISREL V: Analysis of linear structural relationships by the methods of maximum likelihood

Age differences in adults' spatial abilities, learning environmental layout, and wayfinding behaviour

Spatial Cognition and Computation

Principles and practice for structural equation modeling

A dissociation between object-manipulation spatial ability and spatial orientation ability

Memory and Cognition

Spatial versus object visualizers: A new characterization of visual cognitive style

Memory and Cognition

Gender differences in wayfinding strategies: Relationship to spatial ability and spatial anxiety

Sex Roles

Gender differences in pointing accuracy in computer-simulated 3D mazes

Sex Roles

Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-analysis

Child Development