Schäfer Jonas, Reuter Timo, Leuchter Miriam
Department of Pedagogical Psychology and Health Psychology, University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany.
Institute for Child and Youth Education, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), Landau, Germany.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2025 Nov;43(4):993-1009. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12568. Epub 2025 May 27.
Spatial skills are essential cognitive abilities that develop during middle childhood and play a crucial role in solving STEM problems. In this relation, however, important aspects of problem-solving performance remain underexplored. Consequently, this study investigated whether spatial skills contribute to solution quality and parsimony in problem-solving. The sample comprised 478 six- to eight-year-olds (219 female) who completed mental rotation, visuospatial memory and gear-based problem-solving tasks. In both problem-solving tasks, spatial skills were associated with solution quality (β = .27** or .39**, respectively) and partially with the number of operations (β = -.06 or -.16*), indicating higher parsimony. Age was significantly linked to spatial skills and partially to parsimony but not to solution quality. These findings highlight the importance of spatial skills for different aspects of children's STEM-related problem-solving.
空间技能是在童年中期发展起来的重要认知能力，在解决STEM问题中起着关键作用。然而，在这方面，解决问题表现的重要方面仍未得到充分探索。因此，本研究调查了空间技能是否有助于解决问题的质量和简洁性。样本包括478名6至8岁的儿童（219名女性），他们完成了心理旋转、视觉空间记忆和基于齿轮的解决问题任务。在两项解决问题的任务中，空间技能与解决问题的质量相关（β分别为0.27或0.39），并部分与操作次数相关（β为-0.06或-0.16*），表明简洁性更高。年龄与空间技能显著相关，部分与简洁性相关，但与解决问题的质量无关。这些发现凸显了空间技能对儿童与STEM相关的解决问题的不同方面的重要性。
