Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Visual Working Memory Reveal Metacognitive Aspects of Mental Imagery.

Mental imagery (MI) is the ability to generate visual phenomena in the absence of sensory input. MI is often likened to visual working memory (VWM): the ability to maintain and manipulate visual representations. How MI is recruited during VWM is yet to be established. In a modified orientation change-discrimination task, we examined how behavioral (proportion correct) and neural (contralateral delay activity [CDA]) correlates of precision and capacity map onto subjective ratings of vividness and number of items in MI within a VWM task. During the maintenance period, 17 participants estimated the vividness of their MI or the number of items held in MI while they were instructed to focus on either precision or capacity of their representation and to retain stimuli at varying set sizes (1, 2, and 4). Vividness and number ratings varied over set sizes; however, subjective ratings and behavioral performance correlated only for vividness rating at set size 1. Although CDA responded to set size as was expected, CDA did not reflect subjective reports on high and low vividness and on nondivergent (reported the probed number of items in mind) or divergent (reported number of items diverged from probed) rating trials. Participants were more accurate in low set sizes compared with higher set sizes and in coarse (45°) orientation changes compared with fine (15°) orientation changes. We failed to find evidence for a relationship between the subjective sensory experience of precision and capacity of MI and the precision and capacity of VWM.

Assessing the impact of LEGO® construction training on spatial and mathematical skills.

Lego construction ability is associated with a variety of spatial skills and mathematical outcomes. However, it is unknown whether these relations are causal. We aimed to establish the causal impact of Lego construction training on: Lego construction ability; a broad range of spatial skills; and on mathematical outcomes in 7-9-year-olds. We also aimed to identify how this causal impact differs for digital versus physical Lego construction training. One-hundred and ninety-eight children took part in a six-week training programme, delivered twice weekly as a school lunch time club. They completed either physical Lego training (N = 59), digital Lego training (N = 64), or an active control condition (crafts; N = 75). All children completed baseline and follow-up measures of spatial skills (disembedding, visuo-spatial working memory, spatial scaling, mental rotation, and performance on a spatial-numerical task, the number line task), mathematical outcomes (geometry, arithmetic, and overall mathematical skills) and Lego construction ability. Exploratory analyses revealed evidence for near transfer (Lego construction ability) and some evidence for far transfer (arithmetic) of Lego training, but overall transfer was limited. Despite this, we identified key areas for further development (explicit focus on spatial strategies, training for teachers, and embedding the programme within a mathematical context). The findings of this study can be used to inform future development of Lego construction training programmes to support mathematics learning.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal assessment of cognitive development in Williams syndrome.

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic syndrome. As with all rare syndromes, obtaining adequately powered sample sizes is a challenge. Here we present legacy data from seven UK labs, enabling the characterisation of cross-sectional and longitudinal developmental trajectories of verbal and non-verbal development in the largest sample of individuals with WS to-date. In Study 1, we report cross-sectional data between N = 102 and N = 209 children and adults with WS on measures of verbal and non-verbal ability. In Study 2, we report longitudinal data from N = 17 to N = 54 children and adults with WS who had been tested on at least three timepoints on these measures. Data support the WS characteristic cognitive profile of stronger verbal than non-verbal ability, and shallow developmental progression for both domains. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal data demonstrate steeper rates of development in the child participants than the adolescent and adults in our sample. Cross-sectional data indicate steeper development in verbal than non-verbal ability, and that individual differences in the discrepancy between verbal and non-verbal ability are largely accounted for by level of intellectual functioning. A diverging developmental discrepancy between verbal and non-verbal ability, whilst marginal, is not mirrored statistically in the longitudinal data. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data are discussed with reference to validating cross-sectional developmental patterns using longitudinal data and the importance of individual differences in understanding developmental progression.

Exploring relative strengths in people with Down syndrome: Spatial thinking and its role in mathematics.

There is convincing evidence that training spatial abilities leads to improved mathematics performance in typically developing (TD) children. However, a lack of information on mathematical development and spatial-mathematical associations in people with Down syndrome (DS) hinders the translation of these interventions. Here, we established developmental trajectories of mathematics and explored whether spatial ability predicts attainment on different mathematics measures in individuals with DS. Participants with DS (n = 36; ages 9-35 years) and TD children (n = 132; ages 4-11 years) completed three groups of tasks: spatial tasks assessing different subdomains of spatial thinking; mathematics tasks assessing early mathematics skills, mathematical reasoning, arithmetic, and geometry; and IQ tasks. The developmental trajectories of mathematics performance against mental age revealed similar starting points of the trajectories and similar rates of development for DS and TD groups. Furthermore, after controlling for verbal skills, spatial skills explained 5.8% to 18.1% of the variation in mathematical performance across different mathematics tasks, and the pattern of spatial-mathematical relations was similar for DS and mental age-matched TD groups. This shows that mathematical development in DS groups appears to mirror that in TD children, indicative of delay only. Strong spatial-mathematical relations were observed for individuals with DS, like those seen for TD participants. This is the vital preliminary knowledge needed to support the design and use of spatial intervention for improving mathematics in individuals with DS.

Hands-On: Investigating the role of physical manipulatives in spatial training.

Studies show that spatial interventions lead to improvements in mathematics. However, outcomes vary based on whether physical manipulatives (embodied action) are used during training. This study compares the effects of embodied and non-embodied spatial interventions on spatial and mathematics outcomes. The study has a randomized, controlled, pre-post, follow-up, training design (N = 182; mean age 8 years; 49% female; 83.5% White). We show that both embodied and non-embodied spatial training approaches improve spatial skills compared to control. However, we conclude that embodied spatial training using physical manipulatives leads to larger, more consistent gains in mathematics and greater depth of spatial processing than non-embodied training. These findings highlight the potential of spatial activities, particularly those that use physical materials, for improving children's mathematics skills.

Associations and indirect effects between LEGO® construction and mathematics performance.

There is a known association between LEGO® construction ability and mathematics achievement, yet the mechanisms which drive this association are largely unknown. This study investigated the spatial mechanisms underlying this association, and whether this differs for concrete versus digital construction. Between January 2020 and July 2021, children aged 7-9 years (N = 358, 189 female, ethnicity not recorded) completed spatial and mathematics tasks, and either a concrete or digital Lego construction task. Mediation analyses examining direct and indirect pathways (through spatial skills) between Lego construction ability and mathematics explained 8.4% to 26.6% of variance in mathematics scores. Exploratory moderated mediation analyses revealed that only the indirect path through mental rotation differed between Lego conditions. Findings are discussed in relation to theories of spatial-numerical associations and the potential of Lego training for mathematics improvement.

Examining the prevalence and type of technology-use in people with Down syndrome: Perspectives from parents and caregivers.

Familiarity with technology has become a requirement for independent living, however there is limited information on technology access and use for people with Down syndrome (DS). The aim of this study is to describe technology, gaming, and social-media use in people with DS. Parents/caregivers (N = 220) of individuals with DS aged 5-35 years (49% female) completed an online questionnaire. They felt that technology and social media use, and to a lesser extent gaming, played an important role in their son/daughter's life. However, many had concerns about their son/daughter's safety online, and identified challenges they faced with using technology, such as using a mouse and speech recognition. We also found substantial parental interest in learning more about technology-use in DS, particularly the impact of using social media. This paper summarises important details about technology-use in people with DS, providing foundational information for the design of effective technology-based activities and support.

Developmental changes in the processing of faces as revealed by EEG decoding.

Rapidly and accurately processing information from faces is a critical human function that is known to improve with developmental age. Understanding the underlying drivers of this improvement remains a contentious question, with debate continuing as to the presence of early vs. late maturation of face-processing mechanisms. Recent behavioural evidence suggests an important 'hallmark' of expert face processing - the face inversion effect - is present in very young children, yet neural support for this remains unclear. To address this, we conducted a detailed investigation of the neural dynamics of face processing in children spanning a range of ages (6-11 years) and adults. Uniquely, we applied multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to the electroencephalogram signal (EEG) to test for the presence of a distinct neural profile associated with canonical upright faces when compared both to other objects (houses) and to inverted faces. Results revealed robust discrimination profiles, at the individual level, of differentiated neural activity associated with broad face categorization and further with its expert processing, as indexed by the face inversion effect, from the youngest ages tested. This result is consistent with an early functional maturation of broad face processing mechanisms. Yet, clear quantitative differences between the response profile of children and adults is suggestive of age-related refinement of this system with developing face and general expertise. Standard ERP analysis also provides some support for qualitative differences in the neural response to inverted faces in children in contrast to adults. This neural profile is in line with recent behavioural studies that have reported impressively expert early face abilities during childhood, while also providing novel evidence of the ongoing neural specialisation between child and adulthood.

First demonstration of effective spatial training for near transfer to spatial performance and far transfer to a range of mathematics skills at 8 years.

There is evidence that spatial thinking is malleable, and that spatial and mathematical skills are associated (Mix et al. [2016] Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 1206; Mix et al. [2017] Journal of Cognition and Development, 18, 465; Uttal et al. [2013] Psychological Bulletin, 139, 352). However, few studies have investigated transfer of spatial training gains to mathematics outcomes in children, and no known studies have compared different modes of spatial instruction (explicit vs. implicit instruction). Based on a sample of 250 participants, this study compared the effectiveness of explicit and implicit spatial instruction in eliciting near transfer (to the specific spatial skills trained), intermediate transfer (to untrained spatial skills) and far transfer (to mathematics domains) at age 8. Spatial scaling and mental rotation skills were chosen as training targets as previous studies have found, and proposed explanations for, associations between these skills and mathematics in children of this age (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 2016 and 1206). In this study, spatial training led to near, intermediate and far transfer of gains. Mental visualization and proportional reasoning were proposed to explain far transfer from mental rotation and spatial scaling skills respectively. For most outcomes, except for geometry, there was no difference in the effectiveness of implicit (practice with feedback) compared to explicit instruction (instructional videos). From a theoretical perspective, the study identified a specific causal effect of spatial skills on mathematics skills in children. Practically, the results also highlight the potential of instructional videos as a method of introducing spatial thinking into the classroom.

The developmental relations between spatial cognition and mathematics in primary school children.

Spatial thinking is an important predictor of mathematics. However, existing data do not determine whether all spatial sub-domains are equally important for mathematics outcomes nor whether mathematics-spatial associations vary through development. This study addresses these questions by exploring the developmental relations between mathematics and spatial skills in children aged 6-10 years (N = 155). We extend previous findings by assessing and comparing performance across Uttal et al.'s (2013), four spatial sub-domains. Overall spatial skills explained 5%-14% of the variation across three mathematics performance measures (standardized mathematics skills, approximate number sense and number line estimation skills), beyond other known predictors of mathematics including vocabulary and gender. Spatial scaling (extrinsic-static sub-domain) was a significant predictor of all mathematics outcomes, across all ages, highlighting its importance for mathematics in middle childhood. Other spatial sub-domains were differentially associated with mathematics in a task- and age-dependent manner. Mental rotation (intrinsic-dynamic skills) was a significant predictor of mathematics at 6 and 7 years only which suggests that at approximately 8 years of age there is a transition period regarding the spatial skills that are important for mathematics. Taken together, the results support the investigation of spatial training, particularly targeting spatial scaling, as a means of improving both spatial and mathematical thinking.

Using virtual environments to investigate wayfinding in 8- to 12-year-olds and adults.

Wayfinding is the ability to learn and recall a route through an environment. Theories of wayfinding suggest that for children to learn a route successfully, they must have repeated experience of it, but in this experiment we investigated whether children could learn a route after only a single experience of the route. A total of 80 participants from the United Kingdom in four groups of 20 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults were shown a route through a 12-turn maze in a virtual environment. At each junction, there was a unique object that could be used as a landmark. Participants were "walked" along the route just once (without any verbal prompts) and then were asked to retrace the route from the start without any help. Nearly three quarters of the 12-year-olds, half of the 10-year-olds, and a third of the 8-year-olds retraced the route without any errors the first time they traveled it on their own. This finding suggests that many young children can learn routes, even with as many as 12 turns, very quickly and without the need for repeated experience. The implications for theories of wayfinding that emphasize the need for extensive experience are discussed.

A "spoon full of sugar" helps the medicine go down: How a participant friendly version of a psychophysics task significantly improves task engagement, performance and data quality in a typical adult sample.

Few would argue that the unique insights brought by studying the typical and atypical development of psychological processes are essential to building a comprehensive understanding of the brain. Often, however, the associated challenges of working with non-standard adult populations results in the more complex psychophysical paradigms being rejected as too complex. Recently we created a child- (and clinical group) friendly implementation of one such technique - the reverse-correlation Bubbles approach - and noted an associated performance boost in adult participants. Here, we compare the administration of three different versions of this participant-friendly task in the same adult participants to empirically confirm that introducing elements in the experiment with the sole purpose of improving the participant experience, not only boosts the participant's engagement and motivation for the task but results in a significantly improved objective task performance and stronger statistical results.

The contribution of spatial ability to mathematics achievement in middle childhood.

Strong spatial skills are associated with success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. Although there is convincing evidence that spatial skills are a reliable predictor of mathematical achievement in preschool children and in university students, there is a lack of research exploring associations between spatial and mathematics achievement during the primary school years. To address this question, this study explored associations between mathematics and spatial skills in children aged 5 and 7years. The study sample included 12,099 children who participated in both Wave 3 (mean age=5; 02 [years; months]) and Wave 4 (mean age=7; 03) of the Millennium Cohort Study. Measures included a standardised assessment of mathematics and the Pattern Construction subscale of the British Ability Scales II to assess intrinsic-dynamic spatial skills. Spatial skills at 5 and 7years of age explained a significant 8.8% of the variation in mathematics achievement at 7years, above that explained by other predictors of mathematics, including gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and language skills. This percentage increased to 22.6% without adjustment for language skills. This study expands previous findings by using a large-scale longitudinal sample of primary school children, a population that has been largely omitted from previous research exploring associations between spatial ability and mathematics achievement. The finding that early and concurrent spatial skills contribute to mathematics achievement at 7years of age highlights the potential of spatial skills as a novel target in the design of mathematics interventions for children in this age range.

The development of route learning in Down syndrome, Williams syndrome and typical development: investigations with virtual environments.

The ability to navigate new environments has a significant impact on the daily life and independence of people with learning difficulties. The aims of this study were to investigate the development of route learning in Down syndrome (N = 50), Williams syndrome (N = 19), and typically developing children between 5 and 11 years old (N = 108); to investigate use of landmarks; and to relate cognitive functions to route-learning ability in these groups. Overall, measures of attention and long-term memory were strongly associated with route learning, even once non-verbal ability was controlled for. All of the groups, including 5- to 6-year-old TD children, demonstrated the ability to make use of all landmark types to aid route learning; those near junctions, those further from junctions, and also distant landmarks (e.g. church spire, radio mast). Individuals with WS performed better than a matched subset of TD children on more difficult routes; we suggest that this is supported by relatively strong visual feature recognition in the disorder. Participants with DS who had relatively high levels of non-verbal ability performed at a similar level to TD participants.

Egocentric and allocentric navigation strategies in Williams syndrome and typical development.

Recent findings suggest that difficulties on small-scale visuospatial tasks documented in Williams syndrome (WS) also extend to large-scale space. In particular, individuals with WS often present with difficulties in allocentric spatial coding (encoding relationships between items within an environment or array). This study examined the effect of atypical spatial processing in WS on large-scale navigational strategies, using a novel 3D virtual environment. During navigation of recently learnt large-scale space, typically developing (TD) children predominantly rely on the use of a sequential egocentric strategy (recalling the sequence of left-right body turns throughout a route), but become more able to use an allocentric strategy between 5 and 10 years of age. The navigation strategies spontaneously employed by TD children between 5 and 10 years of age and individuals with WS were analysed. The ability to use an allocentric strategy on trials where spatial relational knowledge was required to find the shortest route was also examined. Results showed that, unlike TD children, during spontaneous navigation the WS group did not predominantly employ a sequential egocentric strategy. Instead, individuals with WS followed the path until the correct environmental landmarks were found, suggesting the use of a time-consuming and inefficient view-matching strategy for wayfinding. Individuals with WS also presented with deficits in allocentric spatial coding, demonstrated by difficulties in determining short-cuts when required and difficulties developing a mental representation of the environment layout. This was found even following extensive experience in an environment, suggesting that - unlike in typical development - experience cannot contribute to the development of spatial relational processing in WS. This atypical presentation of both egocentric and allocentric spatial encoding is discussed in relation to specific difficulties on small-scale spatial tasks and known atypical cortical development in WS.

Spatial exploration and navigation in Down syndrome and Williams syndrome.

We know little about the ability to explore and navigate large-scale space for people with intellectual disability (ID). In this cross-syndrome study, individuals with Down syndrome (DS), individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and typically developing children (TD; aged 5-11 years) explored virtual environments with the goal of learning where everything was within the environment (Experiment 1) or to find six stars (Experiment 2). There was little difference between the WS and DS groups when the goal was simply to learn about the environment with no specific destination to be reached (Experiment 1); both groups performed at a level akin to a subset of TD children of a similar level of non-verbal ability. The difference became evident when the goal of the task was to locate targets in the environment (Experiment 2). The DS group showed the weakest performance, performing at or below the level of a subset of TD children at a similar level of non-verbal ability, whilst the WS group performed at the level of the TD subset group. The DS, WS and TD group also demonstrated different patterns of exploration behavior. Exploration behaviour in DS was weak and did not improve across trials. In WS, exploration behavior changed across trials but was atypical (the number of revisits increased with repeated trials). Moreover, transdiagnostic individual difference analysis (Latent Profile Analysis) revealed five profiles of exploration and navigation variables, none of which were uniquely specific to DS or to WS. Only the most extreme profile of very poor navigators was specific to participants with DS and WS. Interestingly, all other profiles contained at least one individual with DS and at least one individual with WS. This highlights the importance of investigating heterogeneity in the performance of individuals with intellectual disability and the usefulness of a data-driven transdiagnostic approach to identifying behavioral profiles.

How Do Executive Functions Influence Children's Reasoning About Counterintuitive Concepts in Mathematics and Science?

Many scientific and mathematical concepts are counterintuitive because they conflict with misleading perceptual cues or incorrect naive theories that we build from our everyday experiences of the world. Executive functions (EFs) influence mathematics and science achievement, and inhibitory control (IC), in particular, might facilitate counterintuitive reasoning. Stop & Think (S&T) is a computerised learning activity that trains IC skills. It has been found effective in improving primary children's mathematics and science academic performance in a large scale RCT trial (Palak et al., 2019; Wilkinson et al., Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, 4, 296-314, 2020). The current study aimed to investigate the role of EFs and the moderating effects of S&T training on counterintuitive mathematics and science reasoning. A sample of 372 children in school Years 3 (7- to 8-year-olds) and 5 (9- to 10-year-olds) were allocated to S&T, active control or teaching as usual conditions, and completed tasks assessing verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM), IC, IQ, and counterintuitive reasoning, before and after training. Cross-sectional associations between counterintuitive reasoning and EF were found in Year 5 children, with evidence of a specific role of verbal WM. The intervention benefited counterintuitive reasoning in Year 3 children only and EF measures were not found to predict which children would most benefit from the intervention. Combined with previous research, these results suggest that individual differences in EF play a lesser role in counterintuitive reasoning in younger children, while older children show a greater association between EFs and counterintuitive reasoning and are able to apply the strategies developed during the S&T training to mathematics and science subjects. This work contributes to understanding why specifically the S&T intervention is effective. This work was preregistered with the ISRCTN registry (TRN: 54726482) on 10/10/2017. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41465-023-00271-0.

Practitioners' perspectives on spatial reasoning in educational practice from birth to 7 years.

BACKGROUND: There is a growing evidence base for the importance of spatial reasoning for the development of mathematics. However, the extent to which this translates into practice is unknown. AIMS: We aimed to understand practitioners' perspectives on their understanding of spatial reasoning, the extent to which they recognize and implement spatial activities in their practice, and the barriers and opportunities to support spatial reasoning in the practice setting. SAMPLE: Study 1 (questionnaire) included 94 participants and Study 2 (focus groups) consisted of nine participants. Participants were educational practitioners working with children from birth to 7 years. METHODS: The study was mixed methods and included a questionnaire (Study 1) and a series of focus groups (Study 2). RESULTS: We found that whilst practitioners engage in a variety of activities that support spatial reasoning, most practitioners reported little confidence in their understanding of what spatial reasoning is. CONCLUSION: Informative and accessible resources are needed to broaden understanding of the definition of spatial reasoning and to outline opportunities to support spatial reasoning.

Building Numeracy Skills: Associations between DUPLO® Block Construction and Numeracy in Early Childhood.

Research shows that children's block construction skills are positively associated with their concurrent and later mathematics performance. Furthermore, there is evidence that block construction training is particularly beneficial for improving early mathematics skills in children from low-Socio Economic Status (SES) groups who are known to have lower maths performance than their peers. The current study investigates (a) the association between block construction and mathematics in children just before the start of formal schooling (4 years-of-age in the UK) and (b) whether the association between block construction and mathematics differs between children from more compared to less affluent families. Participants in this study included 116 children (M = 3 years 11 months, SD = 3 months) who all completed numeracy, block construction, and receptive vocabulary tasks. Socio-economic status and demographic information (child age, gender, ethnicity) were also obtained from parents. Findings show a strong positive association between block construction and early numeracy skills. Block construction skills explained approximately 5% of the variation in numeracy, even after controlling for age in months, household income, and child receptive vocabulary. When separated by SES group, for children from less affluent families, block construction explained a significant amount of variability (14.5%) in numeracy performance after covariates. For children from more affluent families, block construction did not explain a significant amount of variation in numeracy. These findings suggest that, interventions involving block construction skills may help to reduce SES-based attainment gaps in UK children's mathematics achievement.

How useful are landmarks when learning a route in a virtual environment? Evidence from typical development and Williams syndrome.

The ability to learn a route through a virtual environment was assessed in 19 older children and adults with Williams syndrome (WS) and 40 typically developing (TD) children aged 6-9 years. In addition to comparing route-learning ability across groups, we were interested in whether participants show an adult-like differentiation between "useful" and "less useful" landmarks when learning a route and the relative salience of landmark position versus landmark identity. Each virtual environment consisted of a brick wall maze with six junctions. There were 16 landmarks in the maze, half of which were on the correct path and half on incorrect paths. Results showed that both groups could learn each route to criterion (two successful completions of a route without error). During the learning phase, the WS group produced more errors than the TD group and took longer to reach criterion. This was predominantly due to the large number of perseverative errors (i.e., errors that were made at the same choice point on consecutive learning trials) made by the WS group relative to the TD children. We suggest that this reflects a difficulty in inhibiting erroneous responses in WS. During the test phase, the TD group showed stronger recall of landmarks adjacent to junctions (more useful landmarks) than of landmarks along path sections (less useful landmarks) independent of each individual's level of nonverbal ability. This pattern was also evident in the WS group but was related to level of nonverbal maturation; the differentiation between recall of junction and path landmarks increased as nonverbal ability increased across WS participants. Overall, the results demonstrate that individuals with WS can learn a route but that the development of this ability is atypical.