This research paper details a study investigating spatial visualization skills relation to design
problem-solving for undergraduate engineering students. Design is outlined as one of the
seven attributes that engineering students must demonstrate prior to their graduation as set
out through the ABET guidelines. It is important to understand the factors that contribute to
design capability to achieve this learning goal. Design problems by their nature are cognitive
tasks and as such require problem solvers to draw both on learned knowledge and pertinent
cognitive abilities for their solution. In the context of engineering design problem solving,
spatial visualization is one such cognitive ability that likely plays a role. Previous research
has demonstrated a link between spatial visualization and design. This work aims to advance
on that research by exploring how spatial visualization relates to the design process enacted
by undergraduate engineering students.
There were two phases to data collection for this research. In the first phase, 127
undergraduate engineering students completed four spatial tests. In the second phase, 17
students returned to complete three design tasks. This paper will focus on one of these design
tasks, the Ping Pong problem where individuals are asked to design a ping pong launcher to
hit a target from a given distance at a specific height. A purposive sample of 9 first-year and
8 senior students were selected to engage in a think aloud protocol during the problemsolving
task based on their spatial visualization skill levels (high vs. low). The think aloud
protocol was used to assign pre-defined codes for design activity for each of the 17
participants.
Through analysis of these codes, results indicated that there is an association between the
spatial skills of students and the design processes/actions that they employ. These insights
will be discussed relative to their potential influence on engineering education, specifically in
developing design capability.
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This content will become publicly available on December 29, 2024
Spatial Skills and Design Problem Scoping Behaviors in Undergraduate Engineering Students
Context
Engineering design skills are essential for engineering students to succeed in their careers. Engineering design is a skill that is in high demand in the current job market and should be prioritized in education.
Purpose
While design has been acknowledged as a cognitive skill in research, there exists limited literature addressing the cognitive foundations of design thinking. Hence, engineering educators must understand the engineering design process, as well as the different ways students approach design problem-solving and the potential reason behind these differences. To understand how people solve design problems, we need to consider how their minds work and the strategies they use. Spatial ability stands out as a cognitive factor that is crucial for designers and holds significance in well-established theories and models of intelligence. However, to date, research exploring the impact of spatial ability on design thinking and its influence on problem-scoping behaviors remains limited. This paper examines how engineering students’ spatial skills influence how they define the scope of open-ended design problems. The central research question that guides this paper is “How do design problem-scoping behaviors differ for engineering students based on their spatial scores?”.
Methods
The researchers used a mixed methods research approach to answer their research question, collecting qualitative and quantitative data in two phases. One hundred twenty-seven undergraduate engineering students completed four tests that measure spatial reasoning skills in the quantitative phase and 101 students returned to finish the three design tasks in the second phase. This paper will examine the performance of students with low spatial and high spatial skills on one of the completed design tasks.
Outcomes
From the study, it was clear that spatial skills have an impact on the design-scoping behaviors of the undergraduate engineering students. It was inferred that high spatial skill visualizers emphasized the technical details of the design problem whereas low spatial skill visualizers emphasized the context of the design problem during their problem-scoping behavior. A Mann-Whitney test revealed there was a statistically significant difference in detail- and context-focused segments between the high and low spatial visualizer groups.
Conclusion
This research study confirms that a relationship exists between spatial and design skills. The study also found that undergraduate engineering students with different levels of spatial skills had different approaches to scoping design problems.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2020785
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10480531
- Publisher / Repository:
- REES conference proceedings
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Research on Engineering Education Symposium
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- ["Spatial visualization skills","engineering design","design skills","problem-scoping behaviors","undergraduate engineering students"]
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Background Spatial problem‐solving is an essential skill for success in many engineering disciplines; thus, understanding the cognitive processes involved could help inform the design of training interventions for students trying to improve this skill. Prior research has yet to investigate the differences in cognitive processes between spatial tasks in problem‐solving to offer learners timely feedback.
Purpose/Hypothesis In this study, we investigated how different spatial tasks change the cognitive processes and problem‐solving strategies used by engineering students with low spatial ability.
Design/Method Study participants completed mental rotation and mental cutting tasks of high and low difficulty. Eye‐tracking data were collected and categorized as encoding, transformation, and confirmation cognitive processes. The adoption of either a holistic or piecemeal strategy and response accuracy were also measured.
Results Mental rotation was found to have a higher number of fixations for each cognitive process than the mental cutting task. The holistic strategy was used in both difficulty levels of the mental cutting task, while the piecemeal strategy was adopted for the mental rotation task at a high difficulty level. Only encoding fixations were significantly correlated with accuracy and most strongly correlated with strategy.
Conclusion Encoding is an important cognitive process that could affect subsequent cognitive processes and strategies and could, thus, play an important role in performance. Future development in spatial training should consider how to enhance encoding to aid students with low spatial ability. Educators can utilize gaze metrics and empirical research to provide tailored and timely feedback to learners.
