The relationship between spatial abilities and representations of large-scale space in children—a structural equation modeling analysis

The relationship between spatial abilities and spatial representations of large-scale environments was examined with children between 7 and 12 years of age. Subjects were 172 2nd, 4th and 6th graders from different neighborhoods in Magdeburg, Germany. They completed paper-and-pencil forms of Piagetʹs Water-Level-Task, the Rod-and-Frame Test and the Mental-Rotations-Test. In addition children were asked to draw sketch maps of their neighborhood. Performance measures in the three spatial tests were modestly related to each other. There were close to zero correlations between most measures of cognitive mapping and spatial-test performance. An analysis with structural equation models confirmed a model with the two uncorrelated second-level spatial factors spatial ability and spatial representations of the environment. Results also indicate that each second-order spatial-ability factor consists of three subfactors, each representing one of the spatial tests. In contrast to previous studies, the results clearly support the distinction between (1) large-scale spatial tasks where the observer is part of the environment and cannot see the whole space of interest from one point of view, and (2) small-scale spatial tasks, on the other hand, where the spatial relations of objects can be seen at once. The implications of this distinction for our understanding of spatial cognition are discussed.