Te Factorial Structure of Spatial Abilities in Russian and Chinese Students

Abstract

Background. Recent research has suggested a unifactorial structure of spatial ability (SA). However, further studies are needed to replicate this fnding in diferent populations. Objective. Tis study aims to explore the factorial structure of SA in samples of 921 Russian and 229 Chinese university students. Design. A gamifed spatial abilities battery was administered to all participants. Te battery consists of 10 diferent domains of SA, including 2D and 3D visualization, mental rotation, spatial pattern assembly, spatial relations, spatial planning, mechanical reasoning, spatial orientation, and spatial decision-making speed and fexibility. Results. Te results of the factor analysis showed a somewhat diferent pattern for diferent samples. In the Russian sample, the unifactorial structure, shown previously in a large UK sample (Rimfeld et al., 2017), was replicated. A single factor explained 40% of the variance. In the Chinese sample two factors emerged: the frst factor explained 26% of the variance and the second factor, including only mechanical reasoning and cross-sections tests, explained 14%. Te results also showed that the Chinese sample signifcantly outperformed the Russian sample in fve out of the 10 tests. Russian students showed better performance in only two of the tests. Te efects of all group comparisons were small. Conclusion. Overall, a similar amount of variance in the 10 tests was explained in the two samples, replicating results from the UK sample. Future research is needed to explain the observed diferences in the structure of SA.

Keywords

• spatial ability (SA)
• factorial structure
• Russian and Chinese students