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Geometric knowledge is one of the important mathematical skills acquired by children at a young age and is a major area of future mathematical learning; however, there is no direct research on the factors influencing kindergarteners' early geometric knowledge. The pathways model to mathematics was modified to examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying geometric knowledge in Chinese kindergarten children aged 5–7 (n = 99). Quantitative knowledge, visual-spatial processing, and linguistic abilities were stepped into hierarchical multiple regression models. The results revealed that after age, sex, and nonverbal intelligence were statistically controlled, visual perception, phonological awareness, and rapid automatized naming in linguistic abilities significantly predicted the variation in geometric knowledge. For quantitative knowledge, neither dot comparison nor number comparison test could be a significant precursor of geometry skills. The findings indicate that visual perception and linguistic abilities, not quantitative knowledge, account for the geometric knowledge of kindergarten children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to identify the differences between males and females in the level of visual-spatial processing disorder among children with simple cerebral palsy. (7-11) years with an arithmetic mean (8.6) years and a standard deviation (2.4) years of children attending the Soul of Life Association for Cerebral Palsy Children in Beni Suef Governorate during the school year 2021/2022 AD. Autism spectrum, prepared by Ayman Salem Abdullah, and to test the validity of the study’s hypotheses, the study relied on statistical methods represented in the arithmetic averages, Mann Whitney test, and (Z, W, U) values. Male and female children with simple cerebral palsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, there is an obvious shortage of Russian studies of perceptual processes in the gifted. The study is focused on theoretical and organizational issues of research in the cognitive sphere of giftedness, in particular, perception, which is relevant not only in its fundamental but also applied aspects, - this explains the high research activity of foreign psychologists in this area nowadays. The empirical data presented in the literature on the importance of perceptual processes in the formation of the phenomenon of giftedness are considered from the methodological positions of the perceptual psychology, which allows to identify new approaches in the study of giftedness. The array of empirical evidence that is emerging today is systematized according to the main tasks to be solved in the research: (1) to identify (to measure) the cognitive characteristics of the gifted and to establish connections between them; (2) to determine the parameters of cognitive processes specific to giftedness; (3) to establish the connections between the phenomenon of giftedness and specific cognitive resources. The typical organizational features of modern cognitive psychology of giftedness are highlighted: the use of psychometric tools and comparative research methods, the predominance of child and adolescent samples, the preoccupation with the phenomenon of mathematical giftedness and the involvement of neuroscientific research resources; their capabilities and limitations are shown. Using the neurocognitive studies of mathematical giftedness as an example, the theoretical and organizational threats to the validity of the conclusions drawn in them are discussed, as well as the ways to increase the argumentativeness of the research in the cognitive sphere of giftedness, i.e., to ensure its ecological validity, integrity, ontologicality, particularly by covering a larger number of studied variables on significant groups of participants. The empirical evidence of the key role of visual-spatial processing (spatial thinking) in the cognitive structure of giftedness is systematized. Based on the thesis about the special functional significance of the direct sensory perception, the task of determining the functional characteristics of perceptual processes under the conditions of giftedness is set. The integration of knowledge from different subject areas of psychology for studying the problems of unique cognitive and social functioning, the personality organization of a gifted person is also provided.

The present study aimed to explore the influence of the chronotype on mental rotation performance in university students. Using the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), 24 healthy volunteers were categorized as either early chronotype (ECT) or late chronotype (LCT). Participants completed a chronometric mental rotation task with three-dimensional stimuli at different times of day (8 AM and 8 PM). ECT participants showed a shorter reaction time in the morning trial than in the evening (p = 0.003), whereas LCT participants showed a shorter reaction time (p = 0.001) and increased accuracy (p = 0.031) in the evening compared to the morning session. Additionally, the MEQ score was positively correlated with the difference in reaction time between morning and evening trials (r = −0.589, p = 0.002). Two-way analysis of variance revealed an interaction between time and chronotype for the parameter reaction time in the evening trials (F(1, 22) = 28.27, p < 0.001). LCT participants showed higher speed and increased accuracy during their optimal time compared to ECT participants. This study explored diurnal alterations of visual-spatial abilities assessed as mental rotation performance, and the possible implications for certain life skills such as sports, car driving, and manual labor are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the problems faced by children with neurodevelopmental disorders in sensory processing; the aim of this study is to compare visual-spatial and auditory temporal processing in children with special learning disorders, nonverbal learning disorders, and attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder. The research method is Exe-Post Facto and its statistical population included girls and boys aged 9 to 12 years who were referred to the Child Psychiatry Center, Learning Disabilities Centers, and primary schools in the academic year 1399-400 in Rasht. 79 of these children were divided into three groups of specific learning disorders with dyslexia, nonverbal learning disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder by convenience sampling. Data were collected using, the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills, (non-motor)-Revised (Gardner, 1996), Auditory Perception Test (Allen& Serwatka, 1994), and Auditory Problems checklist (Fisher, 1996). Research data were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis of variance. The results show that children with a nonverbal learning disorder in all components of visual, and auditory processing components had lower performance than the other two groups. Children with dyslexia also achieved in the component (rotation and inversion) of visual processing and the component (duration) of auditory processing. Based on results and the existence of more deficiencies in children with a nonverbal learning disorder in sensory processing skills (visual and auditory) it is necessary to pay more attention to the signs and symptoms of this disorder in education to reduce the problems of these children by early interventions.

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) may be a suitable, simple, and cost-effective brain imaging technique for detecting divergent neuronal patterns at an early stage of neurodegeneration. In course of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD), a deficit in visual-spatial processing, located in the parietal cortex, is a reliable risk factor. Earlier, we established the application of the clock-hand-angle-discrimination task (ADT) during fNIRS to identify neuronal correlates of the visual-spatial processing in a healthy elderly sample. In this analysis, we aimed to measure and find out differences in the hemodynamic response in MCI participants compared to matched healthy controls. As expected, MCI participants showed more errors over all conditions of pointer length and a higher reaction time in the long and middle pointer length condition. Moreover, results revealed a significant reduction of cortical activation in MCI patients. There was a generally increased activity in both the right as compared to the left hemisphere and the superior parietal brain region as compared to the inferior parietal brain region in both groups. In summary, fNIRS can be implemented in the measurement of visual-spatial processing in MCI patients and healthy elderly based on ADT. MCI participants had difficulties to cope with the ADT. Since neuronal hypoactivity occurs with concomitant behavioral deficits, an additional analysis was performed on a subgroup of MCI patients who performed as well as the control group in behavior. This subgroup analysis also showed a hypoactivation of the parietal cortex, without evidence of a compensatory activation. Therefore, we assume that MCI patients are characterized by a deficit in the parietal cortex. Overall, these findings confirm our hypothesis that hemodynamic deficits in visual-spatial processing, localized in the parietal cortex, are reliable and early diagnostic markers for cognitive decline in risk groups for the development of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined longitudinal associations between performance on the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure–Developmental Scoring System (ROCF-DSS) at 8 years of age and academic outcomes at 16 years of age in 133 children with dextro-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA). Method: The ROCF-DSS was administered at the age of 8 and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, First and Second Edition (WIAT/WIAT-II) at the ages of 8 and 16, respectively. ROCF-DSS protocols were classified by Organization (Organized/Disorganized) and Style (Part-oriented/Holistic). Two-way univariate (ROCF-DSS Organization × Style) ANCOVAs were computed with 16-year academic outcomes as the dependent variables and socioeconomic status (SES) as the covariate. Results: The Organization × Style interaction was not statistically significant. However, ROCF-DSS Organization at 8 years was significantly associated with Reading, Math, Associative, and Assembled academic skills at 16 years, with better organization predicting better academic performance. Conclusions: Performance on the ROCF-DSS, a complex visual-spatial problem-solving task, in children with d-TGA can forecast academic performance in both reading and mathematics nearly a decade later. These findings may have implications for identifying risk in children with other medical and neurodevelopmental disorders affecting brain development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the effects of instrumental music instruction on cognitive processes with kindergarten children can offer more information on the benefits of learning a musical instrument. To add to this body of research, in a randomized pretest-posttest control group design, the present study explored the effects of 5 weeks/15 hours of instrumental instruction using the violin Suzuki Method on (a) working memory efficiency, (b) visual-spatial processing, and (c) controlled attention among kindergarten students. Assessments were made using the Stanford-Binet 5 (SB-5) working memory and visual spatial subscales and the Kiddie Connor's Continuous Performance Test Version 5 (K-CPT) attention subscales. A MANOVA followed by a univariate ANOVA was conducted on the means of the prepost change scores between the Suzuki violin treatment group and the control group. Results indicated there was a multivariate effect (p ‹ .05) for the combined K-CPT measures and 1 univariate effect (p ‹ .01) for the specific K-CPT subtest of Hit Response Time between the treatment and control group. There were no statistically significant differences in the means of prepost change scores between the groups on the SB-5 subscales. These findings demonstrate that attentional control, a psychological process necessary in academic learning, may be enhanced with instrumental music instruction when presented in early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Patients with schizophrenia show impairments in working-memory and visual-spatial processing, but little is known about the dynamic interplay between the two. To provide insight into this important question, we examined the effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults on perceptual processing while concurrently performing a working-memory task that requires the allocations of various degrees of cognitive resources. Methods: The effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults (N = 91) on perceptual processing was examined in a dual-task paradigm of visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) under three conditions of cognitive load: a baseline condition (with no concurrent working-memory demand), a low VSWM load condition, and a high VSWM load condition. Results: Participants overall performed more efficiently (i.e., faster) with increasing cognitive load. This facilitation in performance was unrelated to symptom expressions. However, participants with high-negative, low-positive symptom expressions were less accurate in the low VSWM condition compared to the baseline and the high VSWM load conditions. Conclusions: Attenuated, subclinical expressions of psychosis affect cognitive performance that is impaired in schizophrenia. The “resource limitations hypothesis” may explain the performance of the participants with high-negative symptom expressions. The dual-task of visual-spatial processing and working memory may be beneficial to assessing the cognitive phenotype of individuals with high risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The current study reports on 9-year-old monozygotic twin girls who fail to make any progress in learning basic mathematics in primary education. We tested the hypothesis that the twins' core maths problems were deficits in number sense that manifested as impairments in approximate and small number systems, resulting in impairment in nonsymbolic as well as in symbolic processing. While age-matched controls (eight typically developing girls) scored highly, the twins scored at chance on all number sense tasks. More specifically, on a nonsymbolic comparison task, even in the simplest ratio condition of 1:2, and on a subitizing task including only numbers under 4, the twins performed at chance and significantly below the same age control group. Responsiveness to an intervention promoting number sense is discussed. As differences between verbal and performance IQ suggest, there seems to be a high degree of specificity in the twins' developmental number sense delays. The concomitant impairments for visual–spatial processing and working memory in the twins might explain the failure to develop number sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning Disorder (LD) and Reading Disorders (RD) are characterized by difficulties in operating with written symbols. The aim of this research was to investigate the role of visual spatial processing and letter recognition in Romanian children with LD and RD and low IQ. The first study, involved 25 children (N=13 test group, and control group, N=12) which took part in a Letter Labyrinth task. Results indicate towards an underlying common cause for confusion between visual stimuli (letters numbers and shapes). In the second study, 21 children completed a recognition task. The findings suggest that difficulties in differentiating between letters and numbers for children with LD and RD persist despite letter acquisition and that these categories are not well structured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It is frequently assumed that by virtue of their hearing losses, deaf students are visual learners. Deaf individuals have some visual–spatial advantages relative to hearing individuals, but most have been linked to use of sign language rather than auditory deprivation. How such cognitive differences might affect academic performance has been investigated only rarely. This study examined relations among deaf college students' language and visual–spatial abilities, mathematics problem solving, and hearing thresholds. Results extended some previous findings and clarified others. Contrary to what might be expected, hearing students exhibited visual–spatial skills equal to or better than deaf students. Scores on a Spatial Relations task were associated with better mathematics problem solving. Relations among the several variables, however, suggested that deaf students are no more likely to be visual learners than hearing students and that their visual–spatial skill may be related more to their hearing losses than to their sign language skills. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: We examined the joint roles of child negative emotionality and parenting in the visual–spatial development of toddlers born preterm or with low birthweights (PTLBW). Method: Neonatal risk data were collected at hospital discharge, observer- and parent-rated child negative emotionality was assessed at 9-months postterm, and mother-initiated task changes and flexibility during play were observed during a dyadic play interaction at 16-months postterm. Abbreviated IQ scores, and verbal/nonverbal and visual–spatial processing data were collected at 24-months postterm. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses did not support our hypothesis that the visual–spatial processing of PTLBW toddlers with higher negative emotionality would be differentially susceptible to parenting behaviors during play. Instead, observer-rated distress and a negativity composite score were associated with less optimal visual–spatial processing when mothers were more flexible during the 16-month play interaction. Mother-initiated task changes did not interact with any of the negative emotionality variables to predict any of the 24-month neurocognitive outcomes, nor did maternal flexibility interact with mother-rated difficult temperament to predict the visual–spatial processing outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of several specific neurocognitive functions in developmental dyslexia (DD). The performances of 60 dyslexic children and 65 age-matched normally reading children were compared on tests of phonological abilities, visual processing, selective and sustained attention, implicit learning, and executive functions. Results documented deficits in dyslexics on both phonological and non-phonological tasks. More stringently, in dyslexic children individual differences in non-phonological abilities accounted for 23.3% of unique variance in word reading and for 19.3% in non-word reading after controlling for age, IQ and phonological skills. These findings are in accordance with the hypothesis that DD is a multifactorial deficit and suggest that neurocognitive developmental dysfunctions in DD may not be limited to the linguistic brain area, but may involve a more multifocal cortical system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Several studies have identified better visual-spatial than verbal memory skills in children with Down's syndrome (DS); however, research in both typical development and DS points to a relative dissociation between visual and spatial memory processing, questioning the notion of a unitary visual-spatial memory construct. The insufficient and often contradictory results regarding the visual-spatial memory domain probably reflect the heterogeneity of memory tests employed by these studies and the different memory systems that they evaluate. We administered five visual-spatial memory tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) to 25 children with DS and to 25 controls matched for mental age (MA) and basic psychomotor speed and accuracy. The memory tasks measure spatial span, visual and spatial recognition, paired associates learning and self-ordered search abilities. The results confirm the relative sparing of the spatial short-term memory (STM) capacity in children with DS; however, as memory load increases, in recognition tasks, or when visual and spatial demands are combined, their performance is impaired compared with MA controls. The same impairment is generated by additional executive demands in the self-ordered search task, although search strategy is similar to the one presented by MA controls. We did not find support for a visual vs. spatial dissociation in recognition memory. Performance impairment in the visual-spatial domain parallels the increase in working memory (WM) load or in the executive demands of the task. Possible neurobiological implications of the observed performance on the CANTAB tasks are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder resulting from a deletion on Chromosome 7. Individuals with WS exhibit distinct physical features such as facial abnormalities, hypercalcemia, and congenital heart disease. Psychosocial characteristics include an outgoing, friendly personality, excellent conservational skills, and mild to moderate mental retardation. Neuroanatomical findings related to WS indicate that the overall size of the cerebrum is reduced although there is proportionately no lateralized volume reduction. Additionally, individuals with WS have a smaller corpus callosum and an enlarged neocerebellum. Observed neuropsychological characteristics form a distinct profile of strengths and weaknesses. In general, strengths are demonstrated in linguistic skills and facial processing, despite overall cognitive impairment and visuo–spatial processing deficiencies. Further research is needed on the relationship between brain structure and function of individuals with WS in order to elucidate the brain systems that contribute to the observed neuropsychological sequelae. Implications for the provision of school psychological services and educational planning of children with WS are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Visual-spatial skills are associated with word reading and arithmetic performance. • Spatial visualization contributes to Chinese word reading via orthographic awareness. • Spatial visualization contributes to arithmetic performance via basic number knowledge. Previous literature has revealed that visual-spatial processing is associated with both reading and arithmetic. Yet the strength of their relations and the reasons why visual-spatial processing contributes to reading and arithmetic remain ambiguous. The current study focused on two types of visual-spatial skills that recent evidence has suggested are crucial in children's early reading and arithmetic development: visual-perceptual and spatial visualization skills. With an interval of 6 months, we assessed 104 Hong Kong kindergarten children's visual-spatial skills, word reading, arithmetic performance, and vocabulary knowledge at Wave 1; orthographic awareness, basic number knowledge, and number line estimation at Wave 2; and Chinese word reading and arithmetic performance at Wave 3. Correlational analysis showed that both visual-perceptual and spatial visualization skills were associated with later Chinese word reading and arithmetic performance. Further mediation analyses revealed that spatial visualization skills, rather than visual-perceptual skills, contributed to Chinese word reading via orthographic awareness and also predicted arithmetic performance through basic number knowledge. However, number line estimation failed to mediate any relations of visual-spatial skills with children's arithmetic abilities. The results suggest the importance of visual-spatial processing in Chinese word reading and mathematics, with spatial visualization contributing to reading and mathematics for different reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are a globally rising issue. It is necessary to detect such diseases early to find strategies for prevention. Typically, patients with MCI or AD show deviant neuronal patterns, which could be detected early through brain imaging techniques enabling assumptions about pre-existing diseases. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an appropriate imaging method because of its easy and economical nature with hardly any drawbacks. An early measurable risk factor indicating neurodegenerative processes could be a deficit in visual-spatial processing, which is localized in the parietal cortex. In this study, we aimed to measure the hemodynamic response of the visual-spatial processing in the healthy elderly participants of our long-term Vogel Study with fNIRS during the clock-hand-angle-discrimination task (ADT) to deepen our understanding of healthy brain mechanisms. Our results revealed for our healthy sample a significantly increased neuronal brain activity with increasing task difficulties, namely from the long to the middle to the short clock hand during ADT and significantly higher activation in the right hemisphere compared to the left hemisphere as well as in the superior parietal cortex compared to the inferior parietal cortex. Additionally, our behavioral data demonstrated longer reaction times and more errors with an increasing task requirement. We, therefore, assume that visual-spatial processing can successfully be operationalized with fNIRS for healthy elderly people based on ADT. Further fNIRS analyses are planned to investigate pathological neuronal correlates of visual-spatial function in MCI or AD study participants. •Parietal cortex activation during visual-spatial tasks can be measured with fNIRS. •Visual-spatial processing can be measured using angle discrimination tasks. •Significant activation of the parietal cortex can be found in healthy elderly. •Higher task requirement results in an increased (right-lateral) neuronal activity. •Higher task requirement results in higher reaction times and more errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]