Multimodal Training Improves Spatial Reasoning Skills in Female College Students

Spatial reasoning is a valuable cognitive tool which enables navigation of the body in relation to other objects in space, permits deconstruction of dimensional forms, allows reconstruction of two-dimensional representations into three-dimensional objects, and facilitates diagramming of processes or concepts. A considerable body of work has suggested that these skills are particularly important for success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields (reviewed in Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, Journal of Educational Psychology 101: 817-835, 2009); however, much of this data has been derived from studies with relatively narrow populations in terms of participant sex, race, academic ability, or socioeconomic condition and very few of these studies have attempted spatial reasoning training from a diversity of academic disciplines. The current study was designed to assess the influence of a week-long, academically interdisciplinary spatial reasoning Bootcamp on a small, diverse group of female participants’ spatial reasoning abilities and to determine if Participants’ subsequent performance in organic chemistry and physics coursework differed from that of a Match (non-Bootcamp participant) Control group. The data indicate that Bootcamp participants significantly improved their scores in some commonly accepted measures of spatial reasoning abilities and that Bootcamp participants’ final grades in organic chemistry, but not physics, were significantly higher than the Match Control group. The data suggest that intentional programming to improve student spatial reasoning abilities can influence short-term spatial skill performance that may translate into improved success in certain types of subsequent coursework.