Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The positive relationship between spatial ability andmathematical skills is a classical result in developmental andcognitive psychology. Given this correlational relationship,researchers have tried to establish whether spatial training canincrease mathematical ability. Such research has providedmixed results. In this study, we analysed the effects of twotypes of spatial training and handedness on primary schoolchildren’s arithmetical ability. The participants were pre-testedon a test of arithmetic and assigned to one of three groups: (a)one hour of mental rotation and translation training, (b) onehour of mental translation training only, or (c) a no-contactgroup. The results showed no significant difference betweentraining groups and a significant interaction between traininggroup and category of handedness. Interestingly, onlyextremely right-handed children in the mental rotation andtranslation group seemed to benefit from the training. Theseoutcomes suggest that any spatial training needs to includemental rotation activities to be effective, and that therelationship between spatial training and achievementmathematics appears to be moderated by handedness.