The role of visuo-spatial abilities in learning three- dimensional anatomical structures from animation

The study investigated how displaying orientation references (internal axes, external character or none) in learning of two anatomical three-dimensional structures from animation affect performance on subsequent spatial judgment tasks. Learners’ visuo-spatial abilities in mental rotation and perspective-taking were also measured. The results showed no main effect of the orientation references on the accuracy of spatial judgments accuracy. However, participants who studied the material with the presence of orientation references, either internal or external, performed the spatial judgment tasks more quickly than did their control counterparts. There was no significant difference in the spatial ability measures for any of the orientation reference conditions. Nevertheless, visuo-spatial abilities affected the accuracy performance differently for the two tasks, suggesting different processing strategies.