Childrens' spatial ability has been studied from developmental and differential psychology orientations and by information-processing theorists. No unified means of examining spatial ability has been attempted by investigators. The focus of this research is thus based on the integration of developmental predictions with a processing model created to generate and test hypotheses regarding certain spatial competencies of young children. Of primary interest was how young children perform depending on the dimensionality of the spatial materials utilized in the experimental task. One hundred and sixty 4 and 6 year old children were randomly selected for one of four treatment conditions with age and sex distributed equally in each condition. Spatial materials were presented in either two or three dimensions and subjects were required to judge whether a response item also presented in two or three dimensions matched the stimulus display. Across-versus within-dimensional performance was therefore compared in a single study. Five displays were presented ranging in difficulty from simple to complex. Response materials consisted of a correct match on the stimulus item and four error types. Types of errors included a geometric violation (in which the objects in the display were unconnected at one point), a depth violation (lack of the depth dimension), a 90° or 270° rotation violation and a 180° violation. These last two violations were considered orientation errors similar to those children exhibit on perspective-taking tasks. Three separate analyses of variance were performed on the data. Results from each of these analyses indicated that six year old children significantly outperformed four year olds in all conditions. However, of importance to developmental psychology was the finding that all subjects performed as well as they did on a task thought to be quite difficult. Also reiterated in these analyses was the result that within-dimensional performance was significantly better than across-dimensional ability for all subjects. Analysis of display complexity revealed that there was differential success for the subjects based on the complexity of the display. Errors analysis indicated that the rotation and reflection foils created the most difficulty for subjects. This finding was reiterated in the Age X Foil Type interaction and Sex X Stimulus Dimension X Response Dimension X Foil Type interaction, in which four year olds' relative inability to perform on these errors as compared to six year olds was shown. This suggests that the ability to correctly discriminate orientation occurs late in the developmental sequence. While no main effect for sex was indicated by any of the analyses, there was an interesting finding as a result of the Sex X Stimulus Dimension X Response Dimension X Foil Type interaction. When across-dimension performance was examined, it was found that males made relatively more errors of an orientation type than females, exhibiting a possible lack of attention to the provided facilitative reference frame. Results were further discussed in terms of predictions from the hypothetical model and in regard to developmental issues. Limitations of the work were also discussed.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Bicycle Drawing Test. The 20-point scoring criterion was evaluated, and the preliminary norms were established. The Bicycle Drawing Test is an easily administered free-style drawing task that has been found to be a useful addition to a neuropsychological test battery. It provides a sample of visuopractic functioning involving the formation of a perceptual construct, a motor response, and a spatial component.

The purpose of this study was to confirm the original factor structure of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) utilizing a non-clinical adolescent population. Additional analysis examined the relationship between SAT-M scores and spatial relations ability. Exploratory analyses were conducted to determine ethnic and gender differences on the WRAML and subtests from the DAT. Sixty-four academically talented adolescents completed the WRAML and the mechanical reasoning and spatial relations subtests from the Differential Aptitude Test (DAT). The confirmatory factor analysis found the data obtained to not be a good fit for the factor structure of the WRAML (Sheslow & Adams, 1990). Additional confirmatory analyses were conducted which examined data fit of a three factor model found by reanalyzing the standardization data (Burton et al., 1996; Wasserman & Cambias, 1991) as well as two null models. The data failed to fit any of these three models. No support was found for the second hypothesis that predicted a positive relationship between SAT-M scores and spatial relations ability. Ethnic and gender differences on the WRAML and two DAT subtests were examined and discussed. Limitations of this study were reviewed which may have accounted for the overall lack of results.

Internal consistency reliability and validity were established for a new 31 item Imagery Manipulation Scale. Previous attempts to correlate subjectively rated control of visual imagery with tests of spatial ability have been unsuccessful. However, no attempt to construct a subjectively rated control of imagery scale was located which tried to establish internal consistency reliability and both content and construct validity. Further, no research was located in which subjects were requested to rate their imagery ability utilized during the performance of the actual spatial tasks used to try to establish validity. A new scale of subjectively rated control of imagery was devised in which subjects were requested to rate their imagery while solving spatial tasks which involved visualizing the manipulation of geometric forms. Content validity was established by analyzing the transformation involved while solving the spatial problems. Internal consistency reliability for the 31 item scale was established across two samples. Validity was established with the second sample (100 university students: 26 male and 74 female). The task utilized to provide validity could be objectively scored, and was made up of four spatial subtests, which were adapted from the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotations Test, the Kosslyn Directions Test, performed in both the forward and backward direction, and a block task utilized by Snyder. A convergent and discriminant validity analysis established construct validity. Further, the hypotheses of three investigators, Kosslyn, Shepard and his colleagues, and Snyder, were supported by the results of the present investigation, thus substantiating the conclusion that reported control of imagery processing can be operationalized with performance scores on spatial ability tasks.