Unpacking associations among children's spatial skills, mathematics, and arithmetic strategies: decomposition matters

Several studies revealed links between mental rotation and mathematical tasks, but the intervening processes in this connection remain rather unexplored. Here, we aimed to investigate whether children's mental rotation skills relate to their accuracy in solving arithmetic problems via their usage of decomposition strategies, thus probing one potential intervening process. To this end, we examined a sample of 6- to 8-year-olds (N = 183) with a chronometric mental rotation task, and asked children to solve several arithmetic problems while assessing their solution strategies. After each arithmetic problem, children were asked about their strategy to solve the respective arithmetic problem and these were classified as either counting, decomposition, or retrieval strategies. Analyses were controlled for age, sex, fluid and verbal reasoning. Results indicated that children's response times and accuracy in the mental rotation task were best explained by linear functions of rotation angle, suggesting the usage of dynamic mental transformation strategies. A multiple mediation model revealed that children with higher mental rotation skills were more inclined to use higher-level mental strategies such as decomposition which in turn increased their accuracy of solving arithmetic problems. None of the other arithmetic strategies revealed significant indirect effects. These findings suggest that children with higher mental rotation skills may profit from visualizing and flexibly transforming numerical magnitudes, increasing the frequency of decomposition strategies. Overall, decomposition may play a unique role in the connection between children's mental rotation and arithmetic skills, which is an essential information for planning future training and experimental studies.

Examining the gray cube effect on naïve viewers' appreciation of street-based art in Hong Kong and Poland

The present research investigates the appreciation of sanctioned street-based art among naïve viewers. It examines the role of viewing context in art appreciation, by experimentally testing a gray cube effect, which posits that street-based artworks are more likely to be identified as art (H1), liked more (H2), and understood more (H3) when viewed on the street. Identical procedures were carried out in Hong Kong (Experiment 1) and Lublin, Poland (Experiment 2), separately, sampling local artworks and local viewers. Experiment 1 tested 14 murals with 100 Hong Kongers; Experiment 2 tested 7 sculptures and 7 murals with 88 Poles. Participants were randomly assigned to either viewing street-based artworks on the street (gray cube) or viewing digital images of street-based artworks in a laboratory. The participants assessed each artwork in terms of art identification, liking, and understanding. These "twin" experiments yielded identical results, i.e., street-based artworks were liked more (H2) and understood more (H3) but not more likely to be identified as art (H1) on the street than in the laboratory. Overall, the present findings support the gray cube effect with ecologically valid data, and the effect seems robust across Western and Eastern cultural contexts and across genres of sculpture and mural.

Drawing as a tool for investigating the nature of imagery representations of blind people: The case of the canonical size phenomenon

Several studies have shown that blind people, including those with congenital blindness, can use raised-line drawings, both for "reading" tactile graphics and for drawing unassisted. However, research on drawings produced by blind people has mainly been qualitative. The current experimental study was designed to investigate the under-researched issue of the size of drawings created by people with blindness. Participants (N = 59) varied in their visual status. Adventitiously blind people had previous visual experience and might use visual representations (e.g., when visualising objects in imagery/working memory). Congenitally blind people did not have any visual experience. The participant's task was to draw from memory common objects that vary in size in the real world. The findings revealed that both groups of participants produced larger drawings of objects that have larger actual sizes. This means that the size of familiar objects is a property of blind people's mental representations, regardless of their visual status. Our research also sheds light on the nature of the phenomenon of canonical size. Since we have found the canonical size effect in a group of people who are blind from birth, the assumption of the visual nature of this phenomenon - caused by the ocular-centric biases present in studies on drawing performance - should be revised.

Scaling up = scaling down? Children's spatial scaling in different perceptual modalities and scaling directions

The present study examined whether scaling direction and perceptual modality affect children's spatial scaling. Children aged 6-8 years (N = 201) were assigned to a visual, visuo-haptic, and haptic condition in which they were presented with colourful, embossed graphics. In the haptic condition, they were asked to wear a blindfold during the test trials. Across several trials, children were asked to learn about the position of a target in a map and to localize a disc at the same location in a referent space. Scaling factor was manipulated systematically, so that children had to either scale up or scale down spatial information. Their absolute deviations from the correct target location, reversal and signed errors, and response times served as dependent variables. Results revealed higher absolute deviations and response times for the haptic modality as opposed to the visual modality. Children's signed errors, however, showed similar response strategies across the perceptual conditions. Therefore, it seems that a functional equivalence between vision and touch seems to emerge slowly across development for spatial scaling. With respect to scaling directions, findings showed that absolute deviations were affected by scaling factors, with symmetric increases in scaling up and scaling down in the haptic condition. Conversely, children showed an unbalanced pattern in the visual conditions, with higher accuracy in scaling down as opposed to scaling up. Overall, our findings suggest that visibility seems to factor into children's scaling process.

Effects of scaling direction on adults' spatial scaling in different perceptual domains

The current study investigated adults' strategies of spatial scaling from memory in three perceptual conditions (visual, haptic, and visuo-haptic) when scaling up and down. Following previous research, we predicted the usage of mental transformation strategies. In all conditions, participants (N = 90, aged 19-28 years) were presented with tactile, colored graphics which allowed to visually and haptically explore spatial information. Participants were first asked to encode a map including a target. Then, they were instructed to place a response object at the same place on an empty, constant-sized referent space. Maps had five different sizes resulting in five scaling factors (3:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:3). This manipulation also allowed assessing potentially symmetric effects of scaling direction on adults' responses. Response times and absolute errors served as dependent variables. In line with our hypotheses, the changes in these dependent variables were best explained by a quadratic function which suggests the usage of mental transformation strategies for spatial scaling. There were no differences between perceptual conditions concerning the influence of scaling factor on dependent variables. Results revealed symmetric effects of scaling direction on participants' accuracy whereas there were small differences for response times. Our findings highlight the usage of mental transformation strategies in adults' spatial scaling, irrespective of perceptual modality and scaling direction.

Implicit spatial sequential learning facilitates attentional selection in covert visual search. An event-related potentials study

Introduction

While most studies on implicit sequential learning focus on object learning, the hidden structure of target location and onset time can also be a subject of implicitly gathered knowledge. In our study, we wanted to investigate the effect of implicitly learned spatial and temporal sequential predictability on performance in a localization task in a paradigm in which covert selective attention is engaged. We were also interested in the neural mechanism of the facilitating effect of the predictable spatio-temporal context on visual search processes. Specifically, with the use of an event-related potential technique, we wanted to verify whether perceptual, attentional, and motor processes can be enhanced by the predictive spatio-temporal context of visual stimuli.

Methods

We analyzed data from 15 young, healthy adults who took part in an experimental electroencephalographic (EEG) study and performed a visual search localization task. Predictable sequences of four target locations and/or target onset times were presented in separate blocks of trials that formed the Space, Space- Time, and Time conditions. One block of trials with randomly presented stimuli served as a control condition.

Results

The behavioral results revealed that participants successfully learned only the spatial dimension of target predictability. Although spatial predictability was a response-relevant dimension, we found that attentional selection–instead of motor preparation–was the facilitation mechanism in this type of visual search task. This was manifested by a shorter latency and more negative amplitude of the N2pc component and the lack of an effect on the sLRP component. We observed no effect of predictability on perceptual processing (P1 component).

Discussion

We discuss these results with reference to the current knowledge on sequential learning. Our findings also contribute to the current debate on the predictive coding theory.

Size and Quality of Drawings Made by Adults Under Visual and Haptic Control

The aim of this study was twofold. First, our objective was to test the influence of an object’s actual size (size rank) on the drawn size of the depicted object. We tested the canonical size effect (i.e., drawing objects larger in the physical world as larger) in four drawing conditions — two perceptual conditions (blindfolded or sighted) crossed with two materials (paper or special foil for producing embossed drawings). Second, we investigated whether drawing quality (we analysed both the local and global criteria of quality) depends on drawing conditions. We predicted that drawing quality, unlike drawing size, would vary according to drawing conditions — namely, being higher when foil than paper was used for drawing production in the blindfolded condition. We tested these hypotheses with young adults who repeatedly drew eight different familiar objects (differentiated by size in the real world) in four drawing conditions. As expected, drawn size increased linearly with increasing size rank, whatever the drawing condition, thus replicating the canonical size effect and showing that this effect was not dependent on drawing conditions. In line with our hypothesis, in the blindfolded condition drawing quality was better when foil rather than paper was used, suggesting a benefit from haptic feedback on the trace produced. Besides, the quality of drawings produced was still higher in the sighted than the blindfolded condition. In conclusion, canonical size is present under different drawing conditions regardless of whether sight is involved or not, while perceptual control increases drawing quality in adults.

Titles and Semantic Violations Affect Eye Movements When Viewing Contemporary Paintings

The role of titles in perception of visual art is a topic of interesting discussions that brings together artists, curators, and researchers. Titles provide contextual cues and guide perception. They can be particularly useful when paintings include semantic violations that make them challenging for viewers, especially viewers lacking expert knowledge. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of titles and semantic violations on eye movements. A total of 127 participants without expertise in visual art viewed 40 paintings with and without semantic violations (20 each) in one of three conditions: untitled, consistent titles and inconsistent titles. After each painting was viewed participants also rated liking and understanding. Our results suggest that titles affect the way paintings are viewed: both titled conditions were associated with shorter first fixation duration, longer saccade durations, and amplitudes and higher dynamic entropy than the untitled conditions. Titles were fixated on more frequently (but only in the time window between 1,200 and 2,800 ms) when presented alongside paintings with semantic violations than paintings without violations, and the percentage of fixations to titles was particularly high in the case of paintings with double inconsistencies (inconsistent titles and semantic violations). Also, we found that semantic violations attracted attention early on (300–900 ms), whereas titles received attention later (average first fixation on title was at 936.28 ms) and inconsistencies in titles were processed even later (after 4,000 ms). Finally, semantic violations were associated with higher dynamic entropy than paintings without violations. Our results demonstrate the importance of titles for processing of artworks, especially artworks that present a challenge for the viewers.

Differences in adults' spatial scaling based on visual or haptic information

The present study examined differences in adults' spatial-scaling abilities across three perceptual conditions: (1) visual, (2) haptic, and (3) visual and haptic. Participants were instructed to encode the position of a convex target presented in a simple map without a time limit. Immediately after encoding the map, participants were presented with a referent space and asked to place a disc at the same location from memory. All spaces were designed as tactile graphics. Positions of targets varied along the horizontal dimension. The referent space was constant in size while sizes of maps were systematically varied, resulting in three scaling factor conditions: 1:4, 1:2, 1:1. Sixty adults participated in the study (M = 21.18; SD = 1.05). One-third of them was blindfolded throughout the entire experiment (haptic condition). The second group of participants was allowed to see the graphics (visual condition); the third group were instructed to see and touch the graphics (bimodal condition). An analysis of participants' absolute errors showed that participants produced larger errors in the haptic condition as opposed to the visual and bimodal conditions. There was also a significant interaction effect between scaling factor and perceptual condition. In the visual and bimodal conditions, results showed a linear increase in errors with higher scaling factors (which may suggest that adults adopted mental transformation strategies during the spatial scaling process), whereas, in the haptic condition, this relation was quadratic. Findings imply that adults' spatial-scaling performance decreases when visual information is not available.

Greater art classification does not necessarily predict better liking: Evidence from graffiti and other visual arts

We tested the relationship between art classification and liking of the graffiti murals among naive viewers (N = 60 college students). Graffiti murals were classified as art to a lesser extent than both abstract and representational paintings. Surprisingly, graffiti murals were only liked less than representational but not abstract paintings. Thus, art classification might not necessarily predict liking.

Field study of audience experience in contemporary circus: An exploratory study on the impact of audience's expertise

This study took place during a contemporary circus festival to investigate the audience experience of contemporary circus street performances. Specifically, we explored the impact of expertise on audience experience (emotion, intellect, novelty, place, interaction, and technique) and performance evaluation (liking and self-perceived understanding). Based on the participants' self-report frequency of previous attendance of contemporary circus and current skill level in contemporary circus, we divided a sample of 349 adult audience members into three groups: low expertise, medium expertise, and high expertise. Expertise had a significant effect on audience experience; the high-expertise participants were more intellectually stimulated than both the medium- and low-expertise participants. Expertise had negligible effect on performance evaluation, but we note that performance reception could have been based on different interpretation styles; that is, more literal in participants lower in expertise and more metaphoric in participants higher in expertise. Finally, we found a clear positive association between audience experience and performance evaluation.

Canonical Size in Haptic Drawings

This study aimed to test differences in drawn size of familiar objects of different physical size in haptic drawings produced by blindfolded sighted participants. Using two sizes of the foil sheets on which they made convex drawings, they drew one object per foil. The results showed that the size of drawings increased linearly with the rising rank of real-world size. Although larger drawings were created on larger foils than on smaller ones, the ratio of the object drawn size within the foil sheet size did not differ across foil sizes. Hence, canonical size-a phenomenon known so far from studies on the visual domain-revealed here in a task performed in the haptic domain.

Seeing Suppresses Haptic Pleasure While Perceiving Contemporary Art

To date, haptic aesthetic processing has been tested outside the field of real works of art. By providing the context of a contemporary art exhibition designed to be touched, we studied haptic pleasure towards artworks. In line with our hypothesis, seeing affected the evaluation of haptic pleasure which was higher in the blindfolded-tactile than visuo-tactile condition. Thus, seeing seems to impede the tactile processing of artworks.

How Does Knowledge About an Artist's Disability Change the Aesthetic Experience?

Based on concepts of cognitive mastering and the rewarding effect of making sense of challenging visual art (taken from a psychological model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments of Leder et al., 2004), we hypothesised that viewers who have knowledge about an artist’s disability will appreciate their ambiguous works more than viewers who do not have such knowledge. Additionally, we aimed to explore how information about the artist’s disability changes the viewer’s aesthetic emotions. We investigated the effect of information on the creator’s visual disability on aesthetic experience in relation to three categories of visual art: photos, sculptures, and drawings. We showed digital reproductions of artworks (N = 32) produced by amateur artists with severe visual impairment to nonexperts in art (N = 145). Viewers assessed their aesthetic appreciation (understood as liking and value) and aesthetic emotions on the Self-Assessment Manikin scales for valence, arousal, dominance, origin, and significance. In accordance with our hypothesis, knowledge of the artists' disability had a positive influence on appreciation, but the effect of information was moderated by artwork category and was significant only in the case of sculptures and drawings (works created using these techniques were assessed in the preliminary study as more difficult to interpret than photos). A similar pattern of results was found for the dependent variables of arousal and significance. Therefore, the positive influence of information about the artists' disabilities on aesthetic experience is mainly revealed when the artworks are characterised by low detectability (defined as the difficulty in interpreting an artwork due to difficulty in recognizing what it depicts).

Adults' spatial scaling: evidence from the haptic domain

The current study investigated adults' spatial-scaling abilities using a haptic localization task. As a first aim, we examined the strategies used to solve this haptic task. Secondly, we explored whether irrelevant visual information influenced adults' spatial-scaling performance. Thirty-two adults were asked to locate targets as presented in maps on a larger or same-sized referent space. Maps varied in size in accordance with different scaling factors (1:4, 1:2, 1:1), whereas the referent space was constant in size throughout the experimental session. The availability of irrelevant, non-informative vision was manipulated by blindfolding half of the participants prior to the experiment (condition without non-informative vision), whereas the other half were able to see their surroundings with the stimuli being hidden behind a curtain (condition with non-informative vision). Analyses with absolute errors (after correcting for reversal errors) as the dependent variable revealed a significant interaction of the scaling factor and non-informative vision condition. Adults in the blindfolded condition showed constant errors and response times irrespective of scaling factor. Such a response pattern indicates the usage of relative strategies. Adults in the curtain condition showed a linear increase in errors with higher scaling factors, whereas their response times remained constant. This pattern of results supports the usage of absolute strategies or mental transformation strategies. Overall, our results indicate different scaling strategies depending on the availability of non-informative vision, highlighting the strong influence of (even irrelevant) vision on adults' haptic processing.

The Relevance of Object Size to the Recognizability of Drawings by Individuals with Congenital Blindness

Introduction:

The aim of this study was to determine whether individuals with congenital blindness make more recognizable drawings of known objects that are furniture sized (table, man, tree) rather than hand sized (egg, coconut, banana; Hypothesis 1). We also investigated whether knowledge that the tactile drawings had been produced by people who are blind increased judges’ perceptions of their recognizability (Hypothesis 2).

Methods:

The raised-line drawings were made by children and teenagers who are blind and had no prior experience in tactile graphics. After a minimal initial training in line drawing, the subjects were asked to draw six objects from memory. The judges used a 7-point Likert-type scale to assess recognizability. All objects were identified for the judges prior to their assessment. One group of judges was told that the drawings they were assessing were made by persons who are blind, while the second group was informed that the drawings were made without the use of sight.

Results:

The real-life size of the objects depicted in the drawings affected judges’ perception of their recognizability. Depictions of hand-sized objects were found to be less recognizable than were depictions of furniture-sized objects. Knowledge of the artists’ blindness had no effect on the judgments of recognizability.

Discussion:

Hypothesis 1 was confirmed, which suggests that individuals with congenital blindness have more difficulty in creating drawings of hand-sized objects than they did creating drawings of furniture-sized objects. Hypothesis 2 was not confirmed, which is inconsistent with the results of previous research in which the awareness of the artists’ disability status influenced the assessment of the artworks. Although the present research focused on recognizability, the issue in earlier research was aesthetic judgment.

Implications for practitioners:

Although few people would question the importance of illustrations in books for sighted children, the value of tactile graphics and the benefits of engaging children who have visual impairments in making and exploring raised-line drawings are not always understood. Full participation in subjects that rely on visual information such as geometry, art, and geography by learners who are born blind requires access to tactile graphics. Basic training in raised-line drawing may be sufficient for some children, particularly those who are older (aged 10 years or more), with congenital blindness who have never drawn before to create from memory recognizable drawings of known objects, especially larger objects.

Mental Size Scaling of Three-Dimensional Objects Perceived Visually or Tactilely

The issue of pictorial or propositional nature of imagery remains unresolved. To take a step forward into the debate, we conducted a systematic evaluation of time and accuracy of mental scaling in sighted people. Participants viewed or touched three-dimensional objects and then had to imagine them in a resized version, depending on a given scale. Both the mental scaling time and the estimated object size were measured. To promote verbal or perceptual strategies, the size was estimated verbally or bimanually, respectively. It was found that time taken for mental scaling is a linear function of decreasing and increasing scale and that the modality of perception did not influence the time taken to perform the operation. The results contribute to the knowledge of object size estimation by revealing the interaction between the modality of the object perception and the accuracy of size estimation by sighted adults. The accuracy of estimation was greater when the imagery representation was based on visual rather than tactile perception, but only in the case of verbal size assessment. Verbal height estimation in centimeters showed a tendency towards underestimation, while bimanually estimated sizes tended to be overestimated. The results indicate that people can use pictorial as well as prepositional strategies, depending on the task.

The Role of Visual Experience in Changing the Size of Objects in Imagery Processing

Introduction

This paper investigates the question of whether or not subjects who are congenitally blind experience greater difficulties mentally in resizing images of objects than those who have low vision or are adventitiously blind.

Methods

Two experiments were conducted: one in which subjects were asked to mentally enlarge objects they previously explored manually, and one in which subjects were tested for the ability to demonstrate the change in the size of an object imagined to be moving away. Three groups of high school students with visual impairments took part in the experiment: congenitally blind, “late blind,” and those with low vision.

Results

When showing the linear size of an object enlarged in their imagination, congenitally blind participants overestimated its size more frequently than those who were late blind. The degree of mental reduction of the size of an object imagined to be moving away was comparable for all groups.

Discussion

The results suggest that the difficulties experienced by congenitally blind participants with the mental resizing of objects may be related to problems with performing mental scaling transformations. In the low vision group, the etiology of the subjects’ visual impairment was not taken into consideration. The group turned out to be heterogeneous with respect to imagery processes.

Implications for practitioners

When using models for explaining new concepts, it is important to ensure that congenitally blind learners understand the change of scale.

Prior visual experience, and perception and memory of shape in people with total blindness

The aim of this study was to explore the role of prior visual experience for tactile differentiation of object shapes. The study investigated whether people who lost their vision later in life were able to identify and recognize object shapes more accurately and faster than those who were blind from their birth. Four experiments were conducted. The first two were concerned with tactile shape differentiation, the second two with shape recognition. The hypotheses were only partially confirmed. The ‘late’ blind participants distinguished shapes more accurately than the congenitally blind (particularly in ‘simple’ perception tasks). This finding may suggest that people who have prior visual experience use an allocentric strategy when visualizing object shapes in their imagery. The ‘late’ blind participants performed the tasks more slowly than those who were congenitally blind. This may be explained by the complexity of the task, the time needed to create an allocentric representation, and discrepancy in the tactile experiences between the congenitally and late blind groups. A number of implications for further research are outlined.