Effects of spatial training on mathematics performance: A meta-analysis.
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
Prior research has revealed robust and consistent relations between spatial and mathematical skills. Yet, establishing a causal relation has been met with mixed effects. To better understand whether, to what extent, and under what conditions mathematics performance can be improved through spatial training, we conducted a systematic meta-analysis of the extant literature. Our analysis included 29 studies that used controlled pre-post study designs to test the effects of spatial training on mathematics (N = 3,765; k = 89). The average effect size (Hedges's g) of training relative to control conditions was .28 (SE = .07). Critically, there was also evidence that spatial training improved individuals' spatial thinking (g = .49, SE = .09). Follow-up analyses revealed that age, use of concrete manipulatives, and type of transfer ("near" vs. "far") moderated the effects of spatial training on mathematics. As the age of participants increased from 3 to 20 years, the effects of spatial training also increased in size. Spatial training paradigms that used concrete materials (e.g., manipulatives) were more effective than those that did not (e.g., computerized training). Larger transfer effects were observed for mathematics outcomes more closely aligned to the spatial training delivered compared to outcomes more distally related. None of the other variables examined (training dosage, spatial gains, posttest timing, type of control group, experimental design, publication status) moderated the effects. Additionally, analyses of publication bias and selective outcome reporting were nonsignificant. Overall, our results support prior research and theoretical claims that spatial training is an effective means for enhancing mathematical understanding and performance. However, our meta-analysis also highlights a poor understanding of the mechanisms that support transfer. To fully realize the potential benefits of spatial training on mathematics achievement, more theoretically guided studies are needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it