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The spatial thinking of origami: evidence from think-aloud protocols

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Abstract

Origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, involves spatial thinking to both interpret and carry out its instructions. As such, it has the potential to provide spatial training (Taylor and Hutton under review). The present work uses cognitive discourse analysis to reveal the spatial thinking involved in origami and to suggest how it may be beneficial for spatial training. Analysis of think-aloud data while participants folded origami and its relation to gender, spatial ability measures, and thinking style suggest that one way that people profit from spatial training is through the possibility to verbalize concepts needed to solve-related spatial tasks.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Tufts University, 490 Boston Ave., Medford, MA, 02155, USA

    Holly A. Taylor

  2. School of Linguistics and English Language, Bangor University, College Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK

    Thora Tenbrink

Authors
  1. Holly A. Taylor
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  2. Thora Tenbrink
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Holly A. Taylor.

Additional information

This article is part of the special issue on “Spatial Learning and Reasoning Processes”, guest-edited by Thomas F. Shipley, Dedre Gentner and Nora S. Newcombe. Handling editor of this manuscript: Thomas F. Shipley.

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Taylor, H.A., Tenbrink, T. The spatial thinking of origami: evidence from think-aloud protocols. Cogn Process 14, 189–191 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-013-0540-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-013-0540-x

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