Spatial Abilities and Performance in Anatomy for Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy Doctoral Students

Spatial ability is the capacity to comprehend three-dimensional structures and positional relationships and to mentally manipulate these structures and relationships to predict the outcome correctly. Spatial ability, which requires extensive knowledge of three-dimensional relationships, contributes to success in endeavors such as studying human anatomy, a foundational component of rehabilitation science curricula. This investigation explored relationships between anatomy course grades, learning preferences, and spatial abilities of graduate healthcare students from two fields of rehabilitation science. We administered the Mental Rotation Test to 95 Doctor of Physical Therapy students and 66 Occupational Therapy students at the start of the anatomy course in the first semester of their professional programs. The spatial abilities of doctoral students in physical therapy and occupational therapy programs reflect consistently reported trends for gender and anatomy performance. Physical therapy students demonstrated higher spatial ability scores than occupational therapy students, which could result from differences in life experience or academic preparation. Awareness of students' spatial abilities, the factors that influence them, and their relationships to student success have important implications for teaching, learning, advising, and retention.