Spatial reasoning measured in infancy predicts how children do in mathematics at four years of age, says a new study published in Psychological Science . “We’ve provided the earliest documented evidence for a relationship between spatial reasoning and math ability,” says Emory University psychologist Stella Lourenco, whose lab conducted the research. To explore whether individual differences in spatial aptitude are present earlier, Lourenco’s lab tested 63 infants, between ages six months to 13 months, for a visual-spatial skill known as mental transformation, or the ability to transform and rotate objects in “mental space”. Mental transformation is considered a hallmark of spatial intelligence. Those who were better at it as babies, the study found, had better maths skills as four-year-olds.
— Emory University
