Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA in Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Allison Jaeger

Second Advisor

William Chaplin

Abstract

This paper explores spatial skill level and strategy use on the Paper Folding task using eyetracking data collection methods. Despite the popularity of self-report methods, the current research aims to provide a clearer understanding of how people approach visuospatial tasks. Test performances from 52 undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago were recorded. A crucial component of this research is how eyetracking hardware and software were used to measure “toggles,” which are the eye movements that participants made across interest areas. Finally, we discuss how toggling relates to strategy use and the different decisions that high and low spatial individuals made when evaluating items of varying difficulty. Our results show that high spatial problem solvers have access to more visualization-based strategies than low spatial problem solvers. We also found that high spatial problem solvers toggle more frequently on easier items and less frequently on harder items than low spatial problem solvers. Understanding these differences will be essential for future research involving strategy implementation and training.

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