ArticleCognitive research: principles and implications2019
Beyond small-scale spatial skills: Navigation skills and geoscience education.
Article in Cognitive research: principles and implications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- A meta-analysis of sex differences in human navigation skills.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2019Pooled it
- Detecting Demographic Influences on Measures of Spatial Ability with Rasch Tree Analysis.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- How Can We Best Assess Spatial Skills? Practical and Conceptual Challenges.Journal of Intelligence · 2024Review
- Using a picture (or a thousand words) for supporting spatial knowledge of a complex virtual environment.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2023Article
- The mediating effect of geospatial thinking on the relationship between family capital and academic achievement in geography.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Spatial activity participation in childhood and adolescence: consistency and relations to spatial thinking in adolescence.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2020Article
- Situating space: using a discipline-focused lens to examine spatial thinking skills.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2020Review
- The Role of Field Training in STEM Education: Theoretical and Practical Limitations of Scalability.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundResearch examining the relation between spatial skills and the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has focused on small-scale spatial skills, even though some STEM disciplines-particularly the geography and geoscience (GEO) fields-involve large-scale spatial thinking at the core of their professional training. In Study 1, we compared large-scale navigation skills of experienced geologists with those of experienced psychologists, using a novel virtual navigation paradigm as an objective measure of navigation skills. In Study 2, we conducted a longitudinal study with novice Geographic Information Systems (GIS) students to investigate baseline navigational competence and improvement over the course of an academic semester.
resultsIn Study 1, we found that geologists demonstrated higher navigational competence and were more likely to be categorized as integrating separate routes, compared to their non-STEM counterparts. In Study 2, novice GIS students showed superior baseline navigational competence compared to non-STEM students, as well as better spatial working memory and small-scale mental rotation skills, indicating self-selection. In addition, GIS students' spatial skills improved more over the course of a semester than those of non-STEM students.
conclusionsOur findings highlight the importance of large-scale spatial thinking for enrollment and success in the GEO fields but likely also across the broader range of thinking involving spatial distributions. We discuss the potential of GIS tools to develop spatial skills at an early age.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.