Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40426306›Full record

ArticleThe British journal of developmental psychology2025

The impact of spatial skills on problem-solving parsimony and solution quality in middle childhood.

Jonas Schäfer, Timo Reuter, Miriam Leuchter

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The British journal of developmental psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jonas SchäferDepartment of Pedagogical Psychology and Health Psychology, University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-3019-8236
Timo ReuterInstitute for Child and Youth Education, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), Landau, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-2098-206X
Miriam LeuchterInstitute for Child and Youth Education, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), Landau, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-7962-6561

Funding

Ministry of Science, Further Education, Research and Culture, Rhineland-PalatinateThe article processing charge was funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and Culture and the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd in the funding programme Open Access Publishing.
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Spatial skills are essential cognitive abilities that develop during middle childhood and play a crucial role in solving STEM problems. In this relation, however, important aspects of problem-solving performance remain underexplored. Consequently, this study investigated whether spatial skills contribute to solution quality and parsimony in problem-solving. The sample comprised 478 six- to eight-year-olds (219 female) who completed mental rotation, visuospatial memory and gear-based problem-solving tasks. In both problem-solving tasks, spatial skills were associated with solution quality (β = .27** or .39**, respectively) and partially with the number of operations (β = -.06 or -.16*), indicating higher parsimony. Age was significantly linked to spatial skills and partially to parsimony but not to solution quality. These findings highlight the importance of spatial skills for different aspects of children's STEM-related problem-solving.

Indexed as

Child DevelopmentProblem SolvingSpace PerceptionSpatial MemoryChildFemaleHumansMalecognitive developmentmental rotationspatial skillsSTEM performancevisuo‐spatial memory

Identifiers

PMID40426306
PMCPMC12505834

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.