Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into the relationship between students' spatial ability and their university entrance score (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank [ ATAR]). The ATAR provides entry into university studies but does not necessary provide a good measure of students' spatial skills. Spatial abilities are fundamental to success in many design courses. This paper aims to show whether the ATAR is a good predictor of spatial skills and considers the implications of this.Design/methodology/approach - Students entering university design courses in architecture were tested three times during their first year using a three-dimensional (3D) Ability Test (3DAT), an online psychometric test of 3D spatial ability. The students' results in 3DAT were then compared to students' ATAR scores using a Pearson's correlation test were also conducted to assess the relationship between ATAR and spatial performance.Findings - There was no correlation between ATAR and spatial performance. Therefore, there was no relationship between an individual's ATAR and their spatial performance upon entering university.Research limitations/implications - Participants were required to select their ATAR from ranges, i.e. 71-80, 81-90 and 91-100, which meant their exact ATAR was not recorded. This meant that the participants were clustered, making it difficult to establish a linear relationship that was a true reflection of the population.Practical implications - Initiatives to support students entering design courses may be necessary to compensate for the range of spatial skills students possess when entering university because of their school experiences.Social implications - Individuals who have strong spatial skills are able to perform spatial problems faster and more efficiently than those with weak spatial skills. High spatial performance has been shown relate to performance in areas such as mathematics science technology and design.Originality/value - This paper fulfils the need to better understand the diversity of spatial abilities students have on entering design courses.

This paper reports on current studies in a large research project concerned with assessing and improving visualisation specific to engineering and science disciplines. These studies primarily focus on establishing a reliable measure of visualisation to identify poor performers so that training and learning tasks can be developed. The visualisation measure called the 3D Ability Test (3DAT) complies with psychometric test construction standards and consists of subtests and test items within each. The 3DAT is a computer-based instrument that measures choice accuracy and response time. The methodology used to investigate subtest properties is presented and results of statistical procedures are reported. Factors of visualisation are examined and the benefits of using a range of subtests are outlined. A case is made for a purpose-designed subtest (dot coordinate) to be seen as a particularly good measure of the visualisation skills considered necessary for science-related disciplines. We outline preliminary studies conducted with unskilled participants (no prior learning) and skilled participants (prior learning) under laboratory conditions. Included is research done with first year university students in design-based disciplines such as mechanical and chemical engineering. Results revealed significant differences between engineering groups when compared to other groups and consistent evidence of gender bias favouring males. The success of collaboration between unusual partners (applied psychology and design) is discussed and argued is the relevance of visualisation to science disciplines where conceptual development is important. Central to the overall project is funding provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC).

In this paper, we describe the development of tutorial levels for navigation challenges requiring a 3D mini-map. Navigation in 3D game worlds is a common challenge for players, and it often forms a significant part of the game play in RPG and Adventure games. Navigation of the game world is typically supported by a mini-map which provides a 2D, top-down view of the game world. This mini-map might also display the position of key landmarks along with the position of the player's avatar and any other relevant actors in the game. In contrast to these 2D min-maps we have been developing a 3D mini-map to support game play that requires navigation in a 3D world. However, even understanding connectivity and structure in a simple 3D mini-map requires the player possess some complex abilities in terms of mental rotation and translation between 3D and 2D. Acquiring these skills is fortunately well studied in psychology and we draw on outcomes from this field to develop progressive challenges that can act as tutorial levels for players. The intention is to allow players to gradually learn how to interpret the 3D mini-map before advancing to more difficult levels in the game. This work encompasses two important aspects. First it draws on findings from cognitive psychology to support the design of spatial challenges in computer games and secondly it considers how computer games can be used in an educational capacity to help improve spatial abilities.

While analysing students' marks in some comparable code-reading and code-writing questions on a beginners' programming exam, we observed that the weaker students appeared to be able to write code with markedly more success than they could read it. Examination of a second data set from a different institution failed to confirm the observation, and appropriate statistical analysis failed to find any evidence for the conclusion. We speculate on the reasons for the lack of a firm finding, and consider what we might need to do next in order to more thoroughly explore the possibility of a relationship between the code-reading and code-writing abilities of novice programming students.

One of the more important aptitudes for students studying engineering courses is spatial ability. Spatial ability can be defined as the performance on tasks that require the mental rotation of objects, the skill to understand how objects appear from different perspectives, and the skill to conceptualize how objects relate to each other in space. This aptitude requires visual and perceptual abilities to interpret what is seen, and spatial understanding to mentally manipulate visual representations. Engineering students require these abilities to be effective designers but our understanding of spatial ability and its elements are not well understood. In many respects, spatial ability is not given the attention it deserves. Reported in this paper is research conducted as part of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded initiative and the findings of a comprehensive study of the spatial ability of engineering students. Central to the study was a 3D ability test consisting of twelve subtests representing various elements of spatial ability. The test was used to evaluate the performance of engineering students across a range of disciplines and institutions.

This paper reports on studies conducted to evaluate the spatial understanding of female engineering students across a range of spatial tasks. Spatial ability is considered a fundamental skill in design-based disciplines and is often seen as a predictor of success in engineering graphics courses. Participants were novice female engineering students undertaking a first year introductory graphical communication course. Results are compared with previous studies that consistently show a gender bias favouring males. This paper profiles the performance of novice female engineering students on a psychometric test of 3D ability consisting of 12 different subtests and six test items in each. Issues associated with improving performance are also raised.

The link between students' spatial ability and their success in a range of engineering courses has been recognised in recent years but its full impact is not understood. This paper reports on research into the spatial abilities of novice designers, engineering students being a major component of this group. The paper focuses on the relationship of spatial ability to gender as well as spatial ability and UAI. This paper also provides an overview of the spatial abilities according to discipline.

This paper reports on studies (Pollock 2006, Day 2006) that examined performance on a range of spatial cognition tasks considered important to designers. It provides evidence that helps validate a new psychometric test developed to measure spatial concepts represented in graphical communication. The test was developed to analyse the performance of novice designers on tasks requiring a range of spatial reasoning skills. Also reported is work in progress which focuses on designing and developing computer learning tasks to improve spatial ability relevant to design. We discuss the traditional approach which is based on observation, demonstrations and the use of plastic models to explain actual 3D concepts. We outline research that points to active exploration as a better alternative and discuss the application of modern software to produce interactive computer models guided by this research. We advocate moving from the traditional approach of learning to active learning using interactive computer models that allow user-controlled manipulation.