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Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability

Spatial abilities–defined broadly as the capacity to manipulate mental representations of objects and the relations between them–have been studied widely, but with little agreement reached concerning their nature or structure. Two major putative spatial abilities are “mental rotation” (rotating ment...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Shakeshaft, Nicholas G., Rimfeld, Kaili, Schofield, Kerry L., Selzam, Saskia, Malanchini, Margherita, Rodic, Maja, Kovas, Yulia, Plomin, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4967849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27476554
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep30545
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author Shakeshaft, Nicholas G.
Rimfeld, Kaili
Schofield, Kerry L.
Selzam, Saskia
Malanchini, Margherita
Rodic, Maja
Kovas, Yulia
Plomin, Robert
author_facet Shakeshaft, Nicholas G.
Rimfeld, Kaili
Schofield, Kerry L.
Selzam, Saskia
Malanchini, Margherita
Rodic, Maja
Kovas, Yulia
Plomin, Robert
author_sort Shakeshaft, Nicholas G.
collection PubMed
description Spatial abilities–defined broadly as the capacity to manipulate mental representations of objects and the relations between them–have been studied widely, but with little agreement reached concerning their nature or structure. Two major putative spatial abilities are “mental rotation” (rotating mental models) and “visualisation” (complex manipulations, such as identifying objects from incomplete information), but inconsistent findings have been presented regarding their relationship to one another. Similarly inconsistent findings have been reported for the relationship between two- and three-dimensional stimuli. Behavioural genetic methods offer a largely untapped means to investigate such relationships. 1,265 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study completed the novel “Bricks” test battery, designed to tap these abilities in isolation. The results suggest substantial genetic influence unique to spatial ability as a whole, but indicate that dissociations between the more specific constructs (rotation and visualisation, in 2D and 3D) disappear when tested under identical conditions: they are highly correlated phenotypically, perfectly correlated genetically (indicating that the same genetic influences underpin performance), and are related similarly to other abilities. This has important implications for the structure of spatial ability, suggesting that the proliferation of apparent sub-domains may sometimes reflect idiosyncratic tasks rather than meaningful dissociations.
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spelling pubmed-49678492016-08-10 Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability Shakeshaft, Nicholas G. Rimfeld, Kaili Schofield, Kerry L. Selzam, Saskia Malanchini, Margherita Rodic, Maja Kovas, Yulia Plomin, Robert Sci Rep Article Spatial abilities–defined broadly as the capacity to manipulate mental representations of objects and the relations between them–have been studied widely, but with little agreement reached concerning their nature or structure. Two major putative spatial abilities are “mental rotation” (rotating mental models) and “visualisation” (complex manipulations, such as identifying objects from incomplete information), but inconsistent findings have been presented regarding their relationship to one another. Similarly inconsistent findings have been reported for the relationship between two- and three-dimensional stimuli. Behavioural genetic methods offer a largely untapped means to investigate such relationships. 1,265 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study completed the novel “Bricks” test battery, designed to tap these abilities in isolation. The results suggest substantial genetic influence unique to spatial ability as a whole, but indicate that dissociations between the more specific constructs (rotation and visualisation, in 2D and 3D) disappear when tested under identical conditions: they are highly correlated phenotypically, perfectly correlated genetically (indicating that the same genetic influences underpin performance), and are related similarly to other abilities. This has important implications for the structure of spatial ability, suggesting that the proliferation of apparent sub-domains may sometimes reflect idiosyncratic tasks rather than meaningful dissociations. Nature Publishing Group 2016-08-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4967849/ /pubmed/27476554 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep30545 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Shakeshaft, Nicholas G.
Rimfeld, Kaili
Schofield, Kerry L.
Selzam, Saskia
Malanchini, Margherita
Rodic, Maja
Kovas, Yulia
Plomin, Robert
Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability
title Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability
title_full Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability
title_fullStr Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability
title_full_unstemmed Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability
title_short Rotation is visualisation, 3D is 2D: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability
title_sort rotation is visualisation, 3d is 2d: using a novel measure to investigate the genetics of spatial ability
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4967849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27476554
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep30545
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