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Thesis-2017-Humphries.pdf (3.91 MB)

The formal disciplinary value of advanced mathematical study: a focus on spatial skills

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thesis
posted on 2017-06-30, 11:17 authored by Sara M. Humphries
This thesis comprises two main studies which sort to investigate the effect that the study of advanced mathematics had on performance on spatial tasks. The first cross-sectional study tested both pre- and post-advanced study students and found an advantage for the mathematicians in a general spatial ability, but no clear evidence of an education level/group interaction. The second longitudinal study tested students at two time points, before and after a year of advanced study. Again, the mathematicians showed higher spatial skills at both time points, but there was no interaction between time and group. Bayesian analyses of the data revealed moderate to strong evidence for the null hypothesis: that there was no formal discipline value of studying advanced mathematics in terms of an effect on spatial skills.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematical Sciences

Publisher

© Sara Humphries

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2017

Notes

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.

Language

  • en

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