The role of visuospatial and verbal abilities, styles and strategies in predicting visuospatial description accuracy

The aim of the present study was to analyze how visuospatial and verbal abilities, styles and strategies predict and mediate the recall of visuospatial descriptions. A group of 198 participants read short visuospatial and abstract descriptions, and then answered multiple-choice questions and reported the strategies (imagery vs repetition) used to memorize the content. Participants' verbal and spatial abilities, and cognitive styles (distinguishing between visual, spatial and verbal styles) were also assessed. The results of the path analysis showed that there was a direct influence of verbal competence (reading comprehension) on description recall accuracy in both visuospatial and abstract texts; the influence of visuospatial competence (including spatial visualization and visual style) on recall accuracy was limited to the visuospatial description and was mediated by the use of an imagery strategy. Overall, these findings indicate that visuospatial ability, visual style, and imagery strategy jointly influence the accuracy of visuospatial description recall.