The effect of spatial language exposure on spatial visualization performance among undergraduate students

Aim: Spatial visualization is important in learning activities that require the mental representation and transformation of visual information.However, limited evidence is available on whether brief linguistic input can directly influence spatial visualization performance among young adults.This study examined whether exposure to spatially dense language, compared with abstract language, was associated with differences in spatial visualization performance among undergraduate students.The study also considered the relevance of spatial language to instructional activities involving spatially complex content. Methodology:The study employed a posttest-only, between-subjects experimental design involving 38 undergraduate psychology students.Participants were exposed to either spatially dense language containing explicit positional and directional terms or abstract language containing fewer spatial expressions.Spatial visualization performance was measured using the Revised Mental Rotations Test, Form A (MRT-A).Descriptive statistics were used to summarize performance, while the Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine whether the two groups differed significantly at the .05level.Results: Participants exposed to spatially dense language obtained a higher mean MRT-A score than those exposed to abstract language, although both groups performed within the lower portion of the possible score range.The difference was not statistically significant, U = 122, p = .091.Thus, brief exposure to spatially dense language did not produce a statistically significant difference in immediate mental rotation performance among undergraduate students.Conclusion: The study did not establish a statistically significant difference in immediate spatial visualization performance between the two language exposure conditions.Whether exposure duration, task requirements, or prior spatial experience influence this relationship remains a question for future investigation.In educational settings, spatially explicit language may support the communication of position, direction, and orientation, but it should not be treated as a stand-alone intervention for improving mental rotation performance.Instructional language may be more appropriately integrated with visual representations, demonstrations, and guided spatial activities.