Dual Processing theory proposes that the ability to over ride associative (System 1) in favour of analytical (System 2) processed in deductive reasoning may depend on inhibitory control. The present study applies this association to a spatial reasoning task by adapting a mental rotation task to a multichoice format including System 1 (mirror) and System 2 (rotated image) responses. Fifty undergraduate volunteers from the University of Canterbury responded to a Stroop task as a measure of inhibitory control that was compared with System 1 and System 2 responding from a spatial and a deductive reasoning task. It was expected that people with weaker inhibitory potential would make more System 1 and fewer System 2 responses in both deductive and visual-spatial reasoning tasks. Contrary to expectation System 2 responding dominated for both tasks and correlations between both reasoning tasks and measures of inhibitory control were non-significant. The differing idiosyncratic demands of each task may have obscured any common variables associated with inhibitory control. This research initiated a test for the presence of System 1 and System 2 in spatial reasoning.

This dissertation employed a mixed-methods approach to examine the relationship between spatial reasoning ability and understanding of chemistry content for both middle school students and their science teachers. Spatial reasoning has been linked to success in learning STEM subjects (Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009). Previous studies have shown a correlation between understanding of chemistry content and spatial reasoning ability (e.g., Pribyl & Bodner, 1987; Wu & Shah, 2003: Stieff, 2013), raising the importance of developing the spatial reasoning ability of both teachers and students. Few studies examine middle school students’ or in-service middle school teachers’ understanding of chemistry concepts or its relation to spatial reasoning ability. The first paper in this dissertation addresses the quantitative relationship between mental rotation, a type of spatial reasoning ability, and understanding a fundamental concept in chemistry, the particulate nature of matter. The data showed a significant, positive correlation between scores on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test of Rotations (PSVT; Bodner & Guay, 1997) and the Particulate Nature of Matter Assessment (ParNoMA; Yezierski, 2003) for middle school students prior to and after chemistry instruction. A significant difference in spatial ability among students choosing different answer choices on ParNoMA questions was also found. The second paper examined the ways in which students of different spatial abilities talked about matter and chemicals differently. Students with higher spatial ability tended to provide more of an explanation, though not necessarily in an articulate matter. In contrast, lower spatial ability students tended to use any keywords that seemed relevant, but provided little or no explanation. The third paper examined the relationship between mental reasoning and understanding chemistry for middle school science teachers. Similar to their students, a significant, positive correlation between scores on the PSVT and the ParNoMA was observed. Teachers who used consistent reasoning in providing definitions and examples for matter and chemistry tended to have higher spatial abilities than those teachers who used inconsistent reasoning on the same questions. This is the first study to explore the relationship between spatial reasoning and understanding of chemistry concepts at the middle school level. Though we are unable to infer cause and effect relationship from correlational data, these results illustrate a need to further investigate this relationship as well as identify the relationship between different spatial abilities (not just mental rotation) and other chemistry concepts.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential benefit of two hours of activities involving 2D and 3D fabricators on the spatial reasoning skills of children in Grades 4 and 5, ages 9 to 10, from a private school in Southeast Texas. Can the introduction to hands-on activities with products created with these devices and learning about how these devices operate improve spatial reasoning skills? The research also evaluates the use of the Shapes Test as a valid measure of the spatial reasoning skills of children. The Cube Design and Spatial Memory subtests of the UNIT (Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Tests) were used for evaluating the spatial reasoning skills of the participants, based on their respected validity, along with a Shapes Test that is in development. Discussion regarding gender, language, and experiential theories of spatial reasoning skill development are included in the literature review.

Sedan hösten 2018 är programmering en del av det matematiska innehållet algebra i läroplanen. Eftersom många lärare känner en osäkerhet angående matematikundervisning om programmering, finns ett behov av att veta mer om hur sådan undervisning kan se ut. Genom designforskning skapas i den här studien förståelse av hur undervisning om programmering i matematik kan designas för att utveckla elevers rumsuppfattning och förståelse av hur entydiga stegvisa instruktioner kan skapas och förbättras. Designforskning bygger på att utarbeta interventioner (lektioner) samt testa och revidera dem på ett systematiskt sätt. Viktiga byggstenar för att kunna lära sig programmera är rumsuppfattning och förståelse av instruktioner. Den här studien fokuserar på utarbetningen av designprinciper som leder till en utveckling av byggstenarna och konstruktionen av givande undervisningsaktiviteter. Undervisningsaktiviteterna sker på ett urkopplat sätt, det vill säga utan användning av digitala verktyg. Studiens viktigaste resultat är betydelsen av fyra designprinciper; att variera objektets startposition, att blanda instruktioner, att testa själv och att uppleva 2D/3D-perspektivet samt två undervisningsaktiviteter och ett arbetsblad som verkar leda till en utveckling av rumsuppfattning och en förståelse av instruktioner. / Since autumn 2018, programming is a part of the algebra content in the Swedish curriculum. Due to an insecurity many teachers feel towards mathematic teaching about programming, there is a need to know what such teaching can look like. This design research study creates an understanding of how mathematical programming lessons can be designed to develop students spatial reasoning and understanding of how distinct step-by- step instructions can be created and improved. Design research builds on developing interventions (lessons), and testing and adjusting them in a systematic way. Important aspects for being able to learn how to program are spatial reasoning and an understanding of instructions. This design research focuses on the development of design principles that will lead to an understanding of the important aspects of learning how to program and the construction of rewarding teaching activities. The activities are unplugged, meaning that there are no digital tools involved. The most important finding of this study is the importance of four design principles; variation of the objects starting point; mixing of instructions; testing and 2D/3D as well as two teaching activities and a worksheet that seem to lead to a development of spatial reasoning and an understanding of instructions.

Dans le contexte la filière productique-usinage en lycée professionnel, les langages de trois disciplines (mathématiques, construction mécanique, productique-usinage) sont comparées du point de vue de l'enseignement du raisonnement spatial mathématique, selon une approche interdidactique. Deux aspects sont spécifiquement étudiés : d'une part, la description des configurations de solides usuels et d'autre part, la modélisation par l'outil vectoriel. / In the context of the professional and educational program in Automated Manufacturing, languages of three courses (Mathematics, Engineering Design, Automated Manufacturing)are compared from the cross cultural point of view to the way of teaching spatial mathematical reasoning : on the one hand, topological relations between three-dimensional forms and, on the other hand,modelling with vectors as conceptual tool.

One reason Qualitative Spatial Reasoning (QSR) is becoming increasingly important to Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the need for a smooth ‘human-like’ communication between autonomous agents and people. The selected, yet general, task motivating the work presented here is the scenario of an object configuration that has to be described by an observer on the ground using only relational object positions. The description provided should enable a second agent to create a map-like picture of the described configuration in order to recognize the configuration on a representation from the survey perspective, for instance on a geographic map or in the landscape itself while observing it from an aerial vehicle. Either agent might be an autonomous system or a person. Therefore, the particular focus of this work lies on the necessity to develop description and reconstruction methods that are cognitively easy to apply for a person. This thesis presents the representation scheme QuaDRO (Qualitative Description and Reconstruction of Object configurations). Its main contributions are a specification and qualitative classification of information available from different local viewpoints into nine qualitative equivalence classes. This classification allows the preservation of information needed for reconstruction nto a global frame of reference. The reconstruction takes place in an underlying qualitative grid with adjustable granularity. A novel approach for representing objects of eight different orientations by two different frames of reference is used. A substantial contribution to alleviate the reconstruction process is that new objects can be inserted anywhere within the reconstruction without the need for backtracking or rereconstructing. In addition, an approach to reconstruct configurations from underspecified descriptions using conceptual neighbourhood-based reasoning and coarse object relations is presented.

<p>Real-time strategy (RTS) games constitute one of the largest game genres today and have done so for the past decade. A central feature of real-time strategy games is opponent AI which is suggestively the “last frontier” of game development because the focus of research has primarily been on other components, graphics in particular. This has led to AI research being largely ignored within the commercial game industry but several methods have recently been suggested for improving the strategic ability of AI agents in real-time strategy games.</p><p>The aim of this project is to evaluate how a method called qualitative spatial reasoning can improve AI on a tactical level in a selected RTS game. An implementation of an AI agent that uses qualitative spatial reasoning has been obtained and an evaluation of its performance in an RTS game example monitored and analysed.</p><p>The study has shown that qualitative spatial reasoning affects AI agent’s behaviour significantly and indicates that it can be used to deduce a rule-base that increases the unpredictability and performance of the agent.</p>

Sketching is an important part of creativity process and is used in the design disciplines, concerned with making physical form: mechanical and civil engineering, graphic design, and architecture and physical planning. Almost all designers still begin the design process by sketching their ideas before transferring them to the computer. This helps designers to express nascent ideas fast and naturally and to speed up visual problem solving. Moreover, the importance of sketching in design has been recognized emphasizing that initial drawing allows creative freedom. The sketches represent a rough semblance and functionality of the system and can be essential to understanding the reasoning behind a design. Furthermore, sketching activity makes designers to interact with their sketches, examine all alternative possibilities and explore design solutions in their minds during drawing. This important part of design, which supports ambiguity, imprecision and incremental formalization of ideas as well as rapid exploration of alternatives, is still performed by engineers with the help of paper and pencil. Despite praxis and fondness of natural interface provided by paper, sketching on paper has its own limitations. The main disadvantage of sketching on paper is that you can easily draw the sketch, but editing and improving of design is more problematic. If designer wants to make changes in the sketch, usually he has to take another sheet of paper and basically redraw the sketch... [to full text]

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Dual Processing theory proposes that the ability to over ride associative (System 1) in favour of analytical (System 2) processed in deductive reasoning may depend on inhibitory control. The present study applies this association to a spatial reasoning task by adapting a mental rotation task to a multichoice format including System 1 (mirror) and System 2 (rotated image) responses. Fifty undergraduate volunteers from the University of Canterbury responded to a Stroop task as a measure of inhibitory control that was compared with System 1 and System 2 responding from a spatial and a deductive reasoning task. It was expected that people with weaker inhibitory potential would make more System 1 and fewer System 2 responses in both deductive and visual-spatial reasoning tasks. Contrary to expectation System 2 responding dominated for both tasks and correlations between both reasoning tasks and measures of inhibitory control were non-significant. The differing idiosyncratic demands of each task may have obscured any common variables associated with inhibitory control. This research initiated a test for the presence of System 1 and System 2 in spatial reasoning.