Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Conception of a facet-oriented spatial ability test
(TARV – Test of Applied Relations and Visuo-spatial abilities)
Lisbeth Weitensfelder
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied PsychometricsFaculty of Psychology, University of Vienna
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Content1. Spatial abilites and spatial facets
2. A new idea: Conception of the TARV and it‘s facets
3. TARV-Items (examples)
4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Spatial abilities„ability to generate, retain, retrieve and transform well-structured images“ (Lohman, 1996)
No unitary construct: Thurstone: defined space 1938 as one factor, but subdivided it 1950 (Rost, 1976)
Subclassification as well by Lohman (1979), Linn & Petersen (1985)
So far: No consistent definition, which and how many facets are necessary to define the construct of spatial abilities
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Thurstone‘s facets(1950)
Lohman‘s facets (1979)
Linn & Petersen‘s facets (1985)
Spatial Relations(imagining a configuration that is moved into different positions)
Spatial Relations (Speeded Rotation)(speed at simple rotation tasks)
Mental Rotation(rather speed than accuracy of rotation)
Visualization (imagination how parts of a configuration are adjourned)
Visualization(complex tasks without time pressure)
Spatial Visualization (complicated, multistep tasks, e.g. paper folding)
Spatial Orientation(imagination where self in spacewould be placed)
Spatial Orientation(imagination how an object looksfrom another side)
Spatial Perception(determation of spatialrelationships with reference tothe own body )
Examples for spatial abilities in literature
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Thurstone‘s facets(1950)
Lohman‘s facets (1979)
Linn & Petersen‘s facets (1985)
Spatial Relations(imagining a configuration that is moved into different positions)
Spatial Relations (Speeded Rotation)(speed at simple rotation tasks)
Mental Rotation(rather speed than accuracy of rotation)
Visualization (imagination how parts of a configuration are adjourned)
Visualization(complex tasks without time pressure)
Spatial Visualization (complicated, multistep tasks, e.g. paper folding)
Spatial Orientation(imagination where self in spacewould be placed)
Spatial Orientation(imagination how an object looksfrom another side)
Spatial Perception(determation of spatialrelationships with reference tothe own body )
Examples for spatial abilities in literature
→ even with similar labellings, the facets content different abilities and the demarcation between the facets is not always clear
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Common tests for spatial abilities
Usually tests base on a single facet of spatialability, e.g.:
3DW (Gittler, 1990), MRT (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978): mental rotationSchlauchfiguren (Stumpf & Fay, 1983): orientation
Measurement of one facet is justifiable, ifprognostic validity of the test is sufficiently high
But: Some jobs require more than one facet ofspatial abilities (e.g. pilots)
Different facets show different gender effects
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Development of a new test: TARV
Idea: Developing a test that contains more than mental rotation Clear demarcation between spatial facets → adapted definition of spatial facets
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Development of a new test: TARV
3 different facets of spatial abilities (based on an adaption of Thurstone‘s and Lohman‘s subclassifications):
Relations: identification of size and distance proportionsRotation: mental rotation of objects or parts of objects Orientation: location (esp.: direction), where an object or self is placed
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
TARV-facets when parking a car
Relations (of size and distance): Looking for parking slots: „Does the car fit in the parking slot?“
Rotation: Parking: „I know the car fits in this slot, but to get in there, I have to move backwards and turn in correctly.“
Orientation: Getting back: „I know I parked the car about a hundred metres away… But in which direction?“
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
TARV design: Facets and itemsSubjects have to perform two different sorts of tasks:
Derivation from 3D to 2D: 2dimensional plans have to be compared with a given 3D-object
Derivation from 2D to 3D: A 3dimensional object has to be compared with given 2D-plans
Facet 1: Relations
Facet 2: Rotation
Facet 3: Orientation
Derivation from 3D to 2D
Derivation from 2D to 3D
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
TARV-Items (examples): Derivation from 3D to 2D
Subjects have to compare a plan with an object and decide, whether the plan fits to the object or not. (Here: the given plan does fit.)
A 3dimensional lettering allowsorientation. An instruction phase clarifiessides.
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
TARV-Items (examples): Derivation from 2D to 3D
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Sequential presentation of the items
Original version: Subjects had to answer 3 plans for every object in a rowAn item is only considered correct if all 3 answers for every object are correct But: time consuming, bottom effects (difficult items) → now just 2 plans for every object that both have to be correct (guessing probability: .25)
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Item Example: Relations
perspective of the plan: top
front
correct plan:
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
front
perspective of the plan: bottom
Item Example: Rotation
Incorrect perspectives for rotation items often content incorrect angles between one object andanother. E.g. in the plan the green part could be tilted differently than in the object.
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Item Example: Orientation
correct plan:
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Results: One or more dimension?
A Rasch-model was calculated in an incomplete design of 3 different TARV-versions with several linking items: – Architecture version (9 items): n = 140 (unproctored)– Engineering version (10 items): n = 124 (unproctored) – Aviation version (10 items): n = 59 (proctored)
In total: 22 different items (15 items without the aviation version)
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Results: One dimension!All 3 facets as defined in the TARV belong to a single dimension according to the median split
LR-value: 17.273, critical chi-square value: 32.671 (a=5%); p-value = .694 (with aviators); LR-value: 7.939, critical chi-square value: 23.685 (a=5%); p-value = .892 (without aviators)
(Not enough demographic data for gender split.)
Median split for all items with (left) and without (right) aviators; the aviation version differed in the presentation mode of the items
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
DiscussionQuestion, whether different facets contribute to different difficulty levels → future research with LLTM
evidence for different difficulties: coherent to literature, men scored higher in rotation of the TARV aviation version. Those effects could not be found in the other TARV versions.
Regarding TARV results, the spatial facets form one dimension. → Spatial abilites as measured in the TARV consist of more than e.g. rotation, but it still seems to be one ability!
eventually comparable to mathematics: calculation is more than multiplications
Time-consuming sequential items → currently: work on a multiple-choice version
1. Spatial abilities& spatial facets
2. Conception ofthe TARV
3. TARV-Items 4. Results
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
Thank you!
http://psychologie.univie.ac.at/diagostik www.testzentrum.at
Division of Psychological Assessment and Applied Psychometrics
Faculty of PsychologyUniversity of Vienna
References• Gittler, G. (1990). Dreidimensionaler Würfeltest (3DW). Ein rasch-skalierter Test zur Messung des räumlichen Vorstellungsvermögens.
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• Grubesic, A. (2010). Raumvorstellung aus Sicht des TARV-F 4.0 und EST. Eine Validierung anhand von Extremgruppen. Unpublished diploma thesis, University of Vienna.
• Linn, M. C. & Petersen, A.C. (1985). Emergence and Characterization of Sex Differences in Spatial Abilities: A Meta-Analysis. Child Development, 56, 1479–1498.
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• Rost, D. (1976). Der Begabungsfaktor „Raumvorstellung“. Theorie und Training. Dissertation, University of Hamburg.
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• Voyer, D., Voyer, S. & Bryden, M.P. (1995). Magnitude of Sex Differences in Spatial Abilities: A Meta-Analysis and Consideration of Critical Variables. Psychological Bulletin, 117/2, 250–270.