The Spatial Thinking and Mathematics Performance (STAMP) Project

A disparity in mathematics achievement exists between children from low socioeconomic households and their more affluent peers. This imbalance in performance can have far reaching consequences, such as, reducing career opportunities, particularly within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) industry. 

 

Spatial cognition (the ability to think and reason about space) has been consistently linked to mathematics performance. Shannon Rosbotham’s (lab member and PhD candidate) research explores differences in the associations between spatial skills and mathematics across children from different socio-economic status backgrounds. 

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As part of her research, Shannon used secondary data from a nationally representative sample, the Millennium Cohort Study, to investigate the relation between early spatial skills (age 5 and 7) mathematics performance throughout development. 

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Shannon is also currently recruiting 8-12 year olds to take part in an eye tracking experiment which  aims to identify the types of strategies children use during spatial tasks, examine whether these strategies vary across SES groups, and investigate whether certain strategies are more strongly associated with higher mathematical performance.