[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591394-105":59,"doc-detail-591394-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","picture-this-increasing-math-and-science-learning-by-improving-spatial-thinking","Picture This - Increasing Math and Science Learning by Improving Spatial Thinking","","An essay by Nora S. Newcombe explains how spatial thinking supports success in STEM fields. It highlights Albert Einstein’s nonverbal, image-based thinking and links brain structure to spatial processing. Using findings from longitudinal research such as Project Talent, it argues that high spatial test performance predicts STEM majors and careers beyond verbal and math skills. The text also defines spatial thinking as understanding object locations, shapes, relations, and movement paths.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/picture-this-increasing-math-and-science-learning-by-improving-spatial-thinking/591394/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/picture-this-increasing-math-and-science-learning-by-improving-spatial-thinking/591394.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"eBook King","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does the document say about spatial thinking and STEM success?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Spatial thinking is described as central to success in STEM disciplines, supported by decades of high-quality studies.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does Project Talent relate to spatial thinking?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Project Talent followed hundreds of thousands of students and found that higher spatial test scores in high school predicted later STEM majors and careers even after accounting for verbal and math strengths.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How is spatial thinking defined in the document?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It concerns object locations, shapes, their relationships, and the paths objects take as they move, and it appears in everyday activities like organizing spaces or assembling items from diagrams.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591394,1792295393,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":46,"preview_page_count":4},962088006270,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Picture This  \nIncreasing Math and Science Learning by Improving Spatial Thinking  \nBy Nora S. Newcombe  \nAlbert Einstein’s scientific accomplishments so  \nimpressed the world that his name is shorthand for  \nintelligence, insight, and creativity. To be an Einstein  \nisto be inconceivably brilliant, especially in math and science. Yet Albert Einstein was famously late to talk, and he described his thinking processes as primarily nonverbal.“The words or the language, as they arewritten or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought,” he once said.“[There are] more or less clear images.”1 Research on his brain, preserved after death, has seemed to support his claim of thinking in spatial images: Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist in Canada,  \nNora S. Newcombe is a professor of psychology at Temple University and the principal investigator of the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (which is funded by the National Science Foundation). She has been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. She is also a past president of the Developmental Psychology division of the American Psychological Association.  \nfound that his parietal cortex, an area of the brain used for spatial and mathematical thinking, was unusually large and oddly configured,2 and likely supported him in imagining the universe in innovative ways.  \nEinstein was unique, but he certainly was not the only scientist to depend on his ability to think spatially. Watson and Crick’s discovery of the structure of DNA, for example, was centrally about fitting a three-dimensional spatial model to existing flat images of the molecule. The fact is, many people who work in the sciences rely on their ability to think spatially, even if they do not make grand discoveries. Geoscientists visualize the processes that affect the formation of the earth. Engineers anticipate how various forces may affect the design of a structure. And neurosurgeons draw on MRIs to visualize particular brain areas that may determine the outcome of a surgical procedure.  \nSo, is spatial thinking really a key to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the so-called STEM disciplines? Yes. Scores of high-quality studies conducted over the past 50 years indicate that spatial thinking is central to STEM success. One of the most important studies is called Project Talent; it followed  \nILLUSTRAT IONS BY CATHERINE MEURISSE  \nAMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2010 29  \napproximately 400,000 people from their high school years in the late 1950s to today.3 It found that people who had high scores on spatial tests in high school were much more likely to major in STEM disciplinesand go into STEM careers than those with lower scores, even after accounting for the fact that they tended to have higher verbal and mathematical scores as well. Similar results have been found in other longitudinal studies: one began in the 1970s and tracked the careers of a sample of gifted students first studied in middle school;4 another began in the 1980s with observing the block play of preschoolers and followed their mathematics learning through high school.5  \nIn short, the relation between spatial thinking and STEM is a robust one, emerging for ordinary students and for gifted students, formen and for women, and for people who grew up during different historical periods. Spatial thinkers are likely to be more  \ninterested in science and math than less spatial thinkers, and are more likely to be good enough at STEM research to get advanced degrees.  \nSo, would early attention to developing children’s spatial thinking increase their achievement in math and science, and even nudge them toward STEM careers? Recent research on teaching spatial thinking suggests the answer maybe yes.  \nWhat Do We Mean by Spatial Thinking?  \nSo far, we have been casual in using the term “spatial thinking.”But what do we really mean by it? Spatial thinking conc","cbCaiqhTRgN812OM","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqhTRgN812OM","pdf",704724,"English","# Increasing Math and Science Learning by Improving Spatial Thinking\n## Spatial thinking and scientific success\n## Evidence from Project Talent and longitudinal studies\n## What do we mean by spatial thinking?\n## Tests of spatial thinking","[{\"question\":\"What does the document say about spatial thinking and STEM success?\",\"answer\":\"Spatial thinking is described as central to success in STEM disciplines, supported by decades of high-quality studies.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Project Talent relate to spatial thinking?\",\"answer\":\"Project Talent followed hundreds of thousands of students and found that higher spatial test scores in high school predicted later STEM majors and careers even after accounting for verbal and math strengths.\"},{\"question\":\"How is spatial thinking defined in the document?\",\"answer\":\"It concerns object locations, shapes, their relationships, and the paths objects take as they move, and it appears in everyday activities like organizing spaces or assembling items from diagrams.\"}]","Picture This - Increasing Math and Science Learning by Improving Spatial Thinking | PDF",1792071768]