Features and strategy influence performance on a chemistry spatial task

Abstract

Spatial thinking is an important skill for success in the chemistry classroom. Experimental studies on mental rotation, a key skill for spatial thinking, show interesting trends in participant performance on 2D and 3D similarity judgement tasks. In these studies, participants’ use of mental rotation is determined by linear regression and/or correlations of response time versus angular disparity of the task. While judgements with block diagrams are amenable to mental rotation, studies find differences with the more symbolic 2D chemistry diagrams depending in the participants’ expertise: novices tend to use mental rotation, while experts use algorithms or other heuristics. Herein, we study these aspects chemistry, spatial thinking, and mental rotation, adding to prior work by investigating the effect of time limits and how task variables like axis and angular disparity influence task performance. We also incorporated a block design that allowed us to look for practice effects. This study was conducted online with undergraduate students ( N = 162) and designed as a conceptual replication of Stieff et al. (2018) to explore how features of the task (e.g., axis of rotation) influence participants accuracy, response time, and their use of mental rotation, diagrammatic, analytic, or algorithmic strategies. Our results suggest that mental rotation was being used successfully for only z-axis rotations, with other strategies such as symmetry heuristics are likely being used for x- and y-axis rotations. We also found that practice can improve stereochemistry task performance. These findings support chemistry novices’ reliance on mental rotation but also suggest that alternative strategies are used when time is limited.