Brescia Psychology Undergraduate Honours Theses

Date of Award

Spring 4-10-2023

Program

Psychology

Supervisor

Dr. Jennifer Sutton

Abstract

This study investigated the association between childhood activities and later spatial abilities. Additionally, the impact of sex and hometown was tested. Undergraduate students completed a demographics question asking about their hometown, along with the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction (SBSOD; Hegarty et al., 2002) questionnaire, the Card Rotation Test (CRT; Ekstrom et al., 1979), the newly revised version of the SAQ, the Southern California Spatial Activities Questionnaire (SoCalSAQ; Munns et al., 2022), the Paper Folding Test (PFT; Ekstrom et al., 1976), and the Childhood Wayfinding Experience (CWE; Lawton & Kallai, 2002)) questionnaire. The results indicated a non-significant association between childhood activities and later spatial abilities. The findings also suggest an association between 2D mental rotation and spatial visualization abilities. Participation in creative and artistic activities may be associated with an individual’s 2D mental rotation abilities. A person’s involvement in navigation-related activities may also be related to childhood wayfinding experiences and spatial visualization abilities. Future research should use the newly revised SoCalSAQ with larger samples to better understand the relationship between childhood activities and later spatial abilities.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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