Abstract:

Spatial ability can be described as the capacity to establish spatial relations, either among objects or between the surrounding environment and ourselves. There is a great body of evidence on the influence of spatial ability and academic performance on those degrees related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). A heated debate exists on how academic skills of first year students have progressed over time. The objective of this study was to investigate possible differences in spatial skills between students of two academic courses more than 5 years apart.

The spatial ability of two cohorts of first year students, corresponding to the academic years 2012 and 2019, of a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de València (València, Spain) were assessed using digital versions of the Mental Rotations Test and the Space Relations subset of the Differential Aptitude Test. A total sample of 224 students, 55 students in 2012 and 169 students in 2019, participated in the study.

This contribution presents an introduction to the field of spatial skills and the available measuring instruments, and provide the results of comparing the performance of two samples of students on two widely used tests, with a particular interest on how they perform throughout the test. A comparable remarkable worsening of the success rate in the course of the tests was observed in both groups of students. Results also showed comparable mean scores of both cohorts in the Differential Aptitude Test and a slightly better performance of students of the 2019 course in the Mental Rotations Test. A discussion of how habits such as smartphone and video game use can influence students’ spatial ability is finally provided.

Keywords:

Spatial ability, education, industrial engineering, STEM.