Beth M. Casey

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Verified

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• Ph.D.
• Professor Emeritus at Boston College

This study examined the effects of training involving spatial versus nonspatial representations of numerical magnitude for promoting arithmetic fluency. The key goal was to advance theoretical understanding of the relation between spatial and math learning, while simultaneously laying the groundwork for the development of future educational interve...

This study investigated whether problem behaviors, typically associated with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD, would also be associated with subclinical ADHD symptoms within a non-clinical college sample. These are symptoms characteristic of ADHD, which are insufficient to warrant a DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD. Self-ratings of behaviors known to be comorb...

An accumulating body of literature points to a link between spatial reasoning and mathematics learning. The present study contributes to this line of research by investigating sex differences both in spatial representations of magnitude and in the use of arithmetic strategies, as well as the relation between the two. To test the hypothesis that sex...

Using data from 12 studies, we meta-analyze correlations between parent number talk during interactions with their young children (mean sample age ranging from 22 to 79 months) and two aspects of family socioeconomics, parent education, and family income. Potential variations in correlation sizes as a function of study characteristics were explored...

There are extensive controversies about: (1) whether any gender differences in math exist, (2) what factors might contribute to any gender differences, and (3) whether gender differences in abilities and attitudes are likely to impact the substantially smaller number of women in math intensive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM...

This study used a person-centered approach to examine mother-daughter dyad behaviors when jointly solving addition problems during a card game. The goal was to identify maternal and child profile behaviors during the interaction as predictors of children’s autonomous addition accuracy and strategy use at the end of first grade. Videotaped observati...

This study addresses girls' (6–7-year-olds; N = 162) arithmetic skills within the context of learning environments provided by their mothers. Mothers and daughters were videotaped solving addition problems during card games. Maternal support was assessed through coding math fact hints and addition-strategy suggestions. Their first-grade daughters w...

The aim of this study is to investigate whether maternal spatial support during two types of joint manipulative toy play tasks with 2-year-old children was longitudinally associated with math screening test scores in second grade. The interaction between spatial support and maternal education was explored as well. We also investigated predictions o...

The development of math reasoning and 3-d mental rotation skills are intertwined. However, it is currently not understood how these cognitive processes develop and interact longitudinally at the within-person level – either within or across genders. In this study, 553 students (52% girls) were assessed from fifth to seventh grades on 3-d mental rot...

The goal of this study was to examine fathers’ support of their children's spatial learning during a joint block-building task at the beginning of first grade as a predictor of their children's math achievement at the end of first grade. Observational measures of videotaped father–child interactions from the Boston site of the NICHD Study of Early...

The chapter by Lowrie and Logan (this volume) on spatial visualization and mathematics reasoning stands out from the chapters written by the other mathematics education researchers, because Lowrie and Logan address the importance of spatial reasoning across a range of mathematics content areas, rather than restricting their focus primarily to measu...

This chapter reviews the spatial literature from the perspective of potential mechanisms for widening the range of spatially-based strategies available when solving math problems. We propose that teaching generalized spatial skills, disconnected from specific math content, may not be the best direction to go in future spatial interventions. Student...

The goal of this study was to examine maternal support of spatial concept learning and planning at 36 months as predictors of children’s math achievement at 4 ½ years and first grade. Observational measures of videotaped mother-child interactions from the Boston site of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 140) were used t...

This study investigated longitudinal pathways leading from early spatial skills in first grade girls to their fifth-grade analytical math reasoning abilities (N = 138). First grade assessments included: spatial skills, verbal skills, addition/subtraction skills, and frequency of choice of a decomposition or retrieval strategy on the addition/subtra...

The primary goal in this study was to examine maternal support of numerical concepts at 36 months as predictors of math achievement at 4½ and 6-7 years. Observational measures of mother–child interactions (n = 140) were used to examine type of support for numerical concepts. Maternal support that involved labeling the quantities of sets of objects...

This study was designed to examine early predictors of later math reasoning in girls. Specifically, girls' first-grade spatial skills were compared with first-grade verbal and arithmetic skills as predictors of spatial and verbal–analytical math reasoning in fifth grade (N = 79). The first-grade girls were given assessments measuring: (1) spatial s...

Freshman engineering students who took a mental rotation (MR) test as a pretest at freshman orientation and as a posttest at the end of the first semester (675 students; 542 males, 133 females) were divided into intervention and comparison groups based on a pass/fail MR pretest cutoff score. Those who failed the test were all assigned to a spatial...

Girls are more likely than boys to use counting strategies rather than higher-level mental strategies to solve arithmetic problems. Prior research suggests that dependence on counting strategies may have negative implications for girls' later math achievement. We investigated the relation between first-grade girls' verbal and spatial skills and the...

This study explores changes in students’ strategies as they solve different types of volume problems. Fifth graders were presented with pictures showing 3D objects and a unit cube; they determined how many cubes made up the object and explained their responses. We examined whether children transferred strategies across problem types, varying in ter...

Two studies were conducted on block building in adolescents, assessing middle school (Study 1) and high school students (Study 2). Students were asked to build something interesting with blocks. In both samples, the same pattern of gender differences were found; boys built taller structures than girls, and balanced a larger number of blocks on a sm...

Spatial reasoning and numerical predictors of measurement performance were investigated in 4th graders from low-income and affluent communities. Predictors of 2 subtypes of measurement performance (spatial–conceptual and formula based) were assessed while controlling for verbal and spatial working memory. Consistent with prior findings, students fr...

In this research, we examined overall performance and gender differences in measurement skills in elementary-school students from low-income families. In Study 1, accuracy and error patterns were analyzed in a large sample of fourth-graders; in Study 2 error patterns and strategy usage were examined with a smaller sample of fourth-graders. Study 1...

This article introduces the Measurement Skills Assessment (MeSA), which was designed to evaluate the mastery of measurement in elementary school students. The primary objectives for the MeSA include covering a broad range of measurement concepts, distinguishing between major subtypes of measurement, and constructing a continuum of items varying in...

This study investigated the relationship between 3 ability-based cognitive styles (verbal deductive, spatial imagery, and object imagery) and performance on geometry problems that provided different types of clues. The purpose was to determine whether students with a specific cognitive style outperformed other students, when the geometry problems pr...

This study investigated the use of block-building interventions to develop spatial-reasoning skills in kindergartners. Two intervention conditions and a control condition were included to determine, first, whether the block building activities themselves benefited children's spatial skills, and secondly, whether a story context further improved lea...

Two studies investigated the effects of a storytelling-context for teaching geometry skills to kindergarten girls and boys. In Study 1, the story+geometry intervention consisted of an adventure story teaching geometry through part-whole-relations puzzles. Learning was assessed through transfer of skills, using a pre-/post design comparing intervent...

In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of research on the relationship of block play to the spatial and mathematics skills of young children, with a focus on gender differences.

It is well known that there is a gender difference on a number of standardized mathematics tests, with males outperforming females (Hyde, Fennema, & Lamon, 1990; Willingham & Cole, 1997). In addition, a relationship has been found between spatial abilities and mathematics test scores (Burnett, Lane, & Dratt, 1979; Casey, Nuttall, Pezaris, & Benbow,...

This article describes a unique supplementary program that teaches early childhood mathematics (Pre-K to Grade 2), through a series of six problem-solving adventure stories. The mathematics concepts are taught to the children through the medium of oral storytelling sagas in an integrated approach that addresses language arts as well as early childh...

For 187 Grade 8 students, we compared spatial-mechanical skills with mathematics self-confidence as mediators of gender differences in mathematics. Using items showing the largest male and female advantage, respectively, on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) U. S. data, we created mathematics Male and Female subtests from...

The parents of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were examined for characteristics symptomatic of 2 comorbidities (Co) within their offspring with ADHD: Tourette syndrome (TS) and language-based learning disabilities (LD). A 2 x 2 multivariate analysis of variance design was used; the parents were divided accor...

It was proposed, based on M. Annett (1985), that individuals biologically predisposed to poorer spatial skills are less likely to capitalize on opportunities to develop these skills. Using an analysis of variance design assessing mental rotation skills in 2 cohorts of 8th graders (365 students), the authors found a significant 3-way interaction (Br...

This study was designed to investigate whether spatial skill, math anxiety, and math self-confidence functioned as mediators of a significant gender difference in the Mathematics Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M) among the top third of a college-bound sample. Using path analytic techniques, the decomposition of the significant gender-SAT-M correlati...

This study was designed to investigate whether spatial skill, math anxiety, and math self-confidence functioned as mediators of a significant gender difference in the Mathematics Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M) among the top third of a college-bound sample. Using path analytic techniques, the decomposition of the significant gender–SAT-M correlati...

In this commentary, the first section will present some of the patterns which seem to be emerging from across the articles in the special issues of Learning and Individual Differences on gender and cognition. Then in the second section I will consider these findings from a biological/ environmental interactionist perspective.

In Halpern's commentary, she strongly supports our theoretical and methodological framework for addressing the ways in which biological and environmental factors interact to influence spatial ability in females (see my review in this issue). I have reanalyzed a data set using two classification methods, to address Halpern's specific criticism that...

This paper reviews a program of research, conducted in collaboration with several of my colleagues, which examines individual differences in spatial ability from a biological/environmental interaction perspective. Our research strategy has been to identify the females who provide the exceptions to the male advantage in mental rotation ability. We t...

Based on Geary's theory, intelligence may determine which males utilize innate spatial knowledge to inform their mathematical solutions. This may explain why math gender differences occur mainly with higher abilities. In support, we found that mental rotation ability served as a mediator of gender differences on the math Scholastic Assessment Test...

This study investigated different types of planning skills in 4- and 5-year-olds. The planning tasks consisted of three search tasks and two clustering tasks. Each task was measured in three ways: by a planning score, the Bronson task attack strategy measure of ongoing behaviors, and by self-report. A varimax rotation of the scores in a factor anal...

This investigation addressed the question of whether planning ability predicts for school grades in third graders when scholastic aptitude is statistically controlled. In the analysis, IQ was entered first into the regression equations followed by three types of planning tasks: two standard planning tasks (Trail-Making and the Tower of Hanoi) and a...

The relationship between mental rotation ability and gender differences in Scholastic Aptitude Test-Math (SAT-M) across diverse samples was investigated. Talented preadolescents, college students and high- and low-ability college-bound youths, totaling 760, were administered the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test. Gender comparisons showed male outper...

The present study supports the view that biological predisposition interacts with perceived parental influences to affect cross-gender role identity. Geschwind and colleagues have identified two patterns of brain organization (anomalous and standard dominance) assessed through individual and familial handedness. Anomalous dominant women who perceiv...

Study 1 was was designed to identify a subgroup of non-right-handers in spatial fields who excel over right-handers in spatial ability. The study investigated image generation skill in individuals majoring in spatial fields (art, math/science) in college. In order to identify this subgroup, the role of three factors was examined: handedness (non-ri...

In accordance with major theories of handedness and brain organization, differential predictors for math achievement were found as a function of sex and handedness subgroups among eighth graders. Although there was no difference in absolute levels of performance as a function of either sex or handedness, predictive structures did differ. Regression...

Right-handed girls from nonright-handed families outperformed the other groups of minority adolescent girls enrolled in a science and technology program on a test of mental rotation ability. This target group excelled over right-handed girls with all right-handed relatives and nonright-handers. The pattern of group differences in mental rotation ab...

This study investigated strategy and performance differences between right-handed boys and girls on a mental rotation task. Based on predictions from Casey and Brabeck's (1990) theory of sex differences, the study was also designed to identify a target group of right-handed girls with the optimal combination of genetic and environmental factors (hi...

This study investigated the effects of visual vs. verbal processing style preferences on immediate recall accuracy for the Rey-Osterrieth and Taylor Complex Figure Tests. Undergraduates were classified as visualizers or verbalizers and asked to copy either the Rey-Osterrieth or Taylor figure and then draw it from memory. A subset of subjects report...

Preschoolers' sequential planning ability was measured in three school-related tasks by assessing organization, systematic responding, and efficiency. Intelligence was assessed through the K-ABC, PPVT, and a Piagetian task. A factor analysis showed evidence of a sequential planning factor separate from an intelligence factor in children as young as...

Presents strategies to make planning-through-play activities a fun and integral part of the preschool developmental curriculum. Strategies are influenced by a Piagetian approach and an information processing approach that focuses on development of decision making. Specific suggestions are based on a model preschool program in Brookline, Massachuset...

This study investigated the hypothesis that artists are characterized both by strengths in spatial visualization and problems in reading. In addition, we investigated whether such a profile is most likely to describe nonright-handed artists. A test of spatial visualization ability and a self-report questionnaire assessing reading problems were admi...

103 female college students (aged 18–24 yrs) were administered the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure on Copy, Immediate Recall, and 20-min Delayed Recall. Ss were grouped based on handedness, familial handedness, and academic major (mathematics/science and nonmath/science). Based on the scoring system of D. Waber and J. Holmes (see PA, Vols 72:24305 an...

103 female college students (aged 18–24 yrs) were administered the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure on Copy, Immediate Recall, and 20-min Delayed Recall. Ss were grouped based on handedness, familial handedness, and academic major (mathematics/science and nonmath/science). Based on the scoring system of D. Waber and J. Holmes (see PA, Vols 72:24305 an...

Preschoolers in a model preschool designed to develop planning and problem-solving abilities were compared to children in three comparison preschools in terms of measures assessing these abilities. They were also compared on measures on cognitive ability unrelated to the intervention, including a measure of general cognitive functioning (the K-ABC)...

A "bent twig" model which incorporates Annett's genetic handedness theory with an environmental component predicted characteristics of college women likely to excel on a mental rotation task. Those likely to have the necessary combination of genetic potential and prior experiences are right-handed women with non-right-handed relatives who rate them...

The Geschwind/Galaburda testosterone theory successfully predicted differences in feminine sex role identification and behavior between women with anomalous dominance and standard dominance. The women with anomalous dominance (consisting of left-handed and ambidextrous as well as right-handed women with first-degree non-right-handed relatives) were...

explores the efficiency of particular kinds of thinking / examine the issue of individual propensities for visuo-spatial thinking, and find that individuals who choose careers in mathematics and the visual arts have good visual memories / individuals having a career in mathematics and sciences are particularly adept at manipulating spatial images,...

Two factors, family handedness and college major, were investigated in order to identify the characteristics of women likely to excel on a mental rotation task. It was found that those likely to have the necessary combination of genetic potential and spatial experiences were right-handed women with nonright-handed relatives, majoring in math-scienc...

This study compared subjects from right-handed families with subjects from nonrighthanded families in their ability to solve a mental-rotation task when instructed to use one of two different spatial strategies. All subjects completed a pretest Vandenberg. Next, one of the following procedures was presented prior to administering the Vandenberg pos...

Exp I investigated the position that mirror-image confusions reflect an inability to attend to low-salient cues. 84 3–5 yr olds were given 3 problems: mirror-image matching, shape-detail matching, and consistent left–right ordering on a picture-naming task. With nonlearners, performance was reassessed following explicit instructions. This rendered...

Developed and tested a model that views left–right mirror-image confusions in preschoolers as part of a general difficulty in distinguishing left–right visual cues. It is proposed that left–right development occurs in 3 distinct levels: Level 1 preschoolers have difficulty responding consistently to left–right cues in their visual field; Level 2 ch...

• Developed and tested a model that views left–right mirror-image confusions in preschoolers as part of a general difficulty in distinguishing left–right visual cues. It is proposed that left–right development occurs in 3 distinct levels: Level 1 preschoolers have difficulty responding consistently to left–right cues in their visual field; Level 2...

A comparison of form and color discrimination learning in 48 Ss showed that none of the color-trained Ss reached criterion, whereas approximately half of the form-trained Ss did reach criterion. Analysis showed that, in contrast to Ss who were given color problems, Ss who were given form problems showed both an initial curiosity about changes in fo...

In order to identify factors related, to academic success at a model two‐year college, creativity, SATs, and high school GPA were factor analyzed, as were academic motivation variables, and included with sex in a step‐wise regression with college GPA as the criterion. Subjects were 278 freshmen at a two‐year “cluster college” for educationally marg...

Methods of increasing learning efficiency through a blocking technique were examined in young children. An experimental group of children was trained on an initial task with one relevant dimension, followed by redundancy training in which an incidental dimension also became relevant. A control group given only redundancy training was compared to th...

The performance of 80 preschool children on a reversal problem was studied as a function of amount of training and type of training procedure used during acquisition and reversal. In the extinction phase of reversal learning, subjects given a correction procedure during the reversal problem made fewer perseverative errors than subjects given noncor...

This study was designed to test the validity of using creativity and academic motivation variables, in addition to the traditional variables of scholastic aptitude and high school GPA, as predictors of college GPA. The sample consisted of the 1973-74 freshman class at the College of Basic Studies (CBS) at Boston University; CBS is a two-year colleg...