Spatial skills and counting sequence knowledge: Investigating reciprocal longitudinal relations in early years

Paper folding is a common activity in East Asian kindergartens, but its potential value to early spatial skills have not been empirically explored. This study aims to investigate whether and how paper folding skills can predict spatial ability (SA) in the early years. Altogether 101 preschoolers (Ngirl = 45, Mage = 4.54, SD = 0.75) were randomly sampled from two Hong Kong kindergartens and invited to complete the map-use and the paper folding tasks. The paper folding task taps two levels of children’s paper folding skills: Basic Folding Skill (BFS) and Advanced Folding Skill (AFS). The parents reported the demographic information and their involvement in spatial activities at home. The results indicated the following: (1) there was a significant age-related increase in the paper folding performance; (2) child age could significantly predict both BFS (β = 0.551, p < 0.001) and AFS (β = 0.627, p < 0.001), while parental involvement could only predict BFS (β = 0.246, p < 0.001); (3) after controlling for confounders, paper folding skills could significantly predict SA as measured by the map-use task; (4) BFS was found to mediate the relationship between parental involvement and SA. The educational implications of these findings are also discussed.

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Spatial Skills and Perceptions of Space: Representing 2D Drawings as 3D Drawings inside Immersive Virtual Reality

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11041475 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 1475

Author(s):

Hugo C. Gómez-Tone ◽

Jorge Martin-Gutierrez ◽

John Bustamante-Escapa ◽

Paola Bustamante-Escapa

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Spatial Perception ◽

Skills Training ◽

Full Scale ◽

Early Years ◽

Immersive Virtual Reality ◽

Spatial Skills ◽

Immersive Environments ◽

Head Mounted Displays ◽

Architectural Spaces

Rapid freehand drawings are of great importance in the early years of university studies of architecture, because both the physical characteristics of spaces and their sensory characteristics can be communicated through them. In order to draw architectural spaces, it is necessary to have the ability to visualize and manipulate them mentally, which leads us to the concept of spatial skills; but it also requires a development of spatial perception to express them in the drawings. The purpose of this research is to analyze the improvement of spatial skills through the full-scale sketching of architectural spaces in virtual immersive environments and to analyze spatial perception in reference to the capture of spatial sensations in virtual immersive environments. Spatial skills training was created based on the freehand drawing of architectural spaces using Head Mounted Displays (HMD) and registered the spatial sensations experienced also using HMD, but only in previously modeled realistic spaces. It was found that the training significantly improved orientation, rotation and visualization, and that the sensory journey and experimentation of architectural spaces realistically modeled in immersive virtual reality environments allows for the same sensations that the designer initially sought to convey.

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The Genesis and Internal Dynamics of El Salvador's People's Revolutionary Army, 1970–1976

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x13009850 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 38 (01) ◽

pp. 102-129

Author(s):

ALBERTO MARTÍN ÁLVAREZ ◽

EUDALD CORTINA ORERO

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

El Salvador ◽

Early Years ◽

Left Wing ◽

Internal Dynamics ◽

Internal Coherence ◽

The 1960S

AbstractUsing interviews with former militants and previously unpublished documents, this article traces the genesis and internal dynamics of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army, ERP) in El Salvador during the early years of its existence (1970–6). This period was marked by the inability of the ERP to maintain internal coherence or any consensus on revolutionary strategy, which led to a series of splits and internal fights over control of the organisation. The evidence marshalled in this case study sheds new light on the origins of the armed Salvadorean Left and thus contributes to a wider understanding of the processes of formation and internal dynamics of armed left-wing groups that emerged from the 1960s onwards in Latin America.

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Image quality vs data obtainment in biological electron microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100141950 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 42-43

Author(s):

J. E. Johnson

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Endoplasmic Reticulum ◽

Electron Beam ◽

Image Quality ◽

High Speed ◽

Early Period ◽

Early Years ◽

Fluorescent Screen ◽

Embedding Medium

In the early years of biological electron microscopy, scientists had their hands full attempting to describe the cellular microcosm that was suddenly before them on the fluorescent screen. Mitochondria, Golgi, endoplasmic reticulum, and other myriad organelles were being examined, micrographed, and documented in the literature. A major problem of that early period was the development of methods to cut sections thin enough to study under the electron beam. A microtome designed in 1943 moved the specimen toward a rotary “Cyclone” knife revolving at 12,500 RPM, or 1000 times as fast as an ordinary microtome. It was claimed that no embedding medium was necessary or that soft embedding media could be used. Collecting the sections thus cut sounded a little precarious: “The 0.1 micron sections cut with the high speed knife fly out at a tangent and are dispersed in the air. They may be collected... on... screens held near the knife“.

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