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Assessing Rigid and Non-Rigid Spatial Thinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2022

K. Maheshwary ,
B. Eisenbart ,
S. Zorn ,
T. Nelius ,
K. Gericke ,
S. Matthiesen  and
L. Blessing
K. Maheshwary*
Affiliation:
Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
B. Eisenbart
Affiliation:
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
S. Zorn
Affiliation:
University of Rostock, Germany
T. Nelius
Affiliation:
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
K. Gericke
Affiliation:
University of Rostock, Germany
S. Matthiesen
Affiliation:
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
L. Blessing
Affiliation:
Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
*
Khushbu_maheshwary@mymail.sutd.edu.sg

Abstract

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Spatial Thinking (ST) is an important part of reasoning. In contrast to Rigid ST (R-ST), Non-Rigid ST (NR-ST) has hardly been researched and tests do not exist, even though NR-ST is crucial for professions that deal with space and time such as engineering and design. Our study at 4 different universities confirms that R-ST does not predict performance in NR-ST; that performance in Non-Rigid ST is significantly lower than in R-ST; and that performance of students in later semesters is not better than in the first semesters. These results highlight the need for further research into NR-ST.

Keywords

spatial thinkingdesign educationdesign competencescognitive capabilities

Information

Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 2: DESIGN2022 , May 2022 , pp. 2333 - 2342
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2022.

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