Spatial Addition asks the person to combine visuospatial information
In Spatial Addition, the person views separate pieces of visuospatial information, retains their locations, combines the relevant parts, filters out what should not be included, and selects the resulting arrangement.
Spatial Addition is a secondary subtest of the WAIS-5 Working Memory Index, or WMI. Together with Symbol Span, it contributes to the Visual Working Memory Index. It was added in WAIS-5; WAIS-IV and WAIS-5 compared explains the wider change.
What higher and lower Spatial Addition performance can show
Higher performance shows that the person preserved spatial relationships accurately while working towards the result. Lower performance can reflect spatial information being lost during combination, excluded information being included in the answer, or locations not being preserved during manipulation. Spatial Addition therefore provides evidence about visual working memory, or Gwm, complementing the auditory-verbal format of digit tasks.
The same processing is used when mentally combining several layouts while removing information that is irrelevant to the final arrangement.
Spatial Addition differs from Symbol Span and auditory working-memory tasks
| Subtest | Information format | Central task demand |
|---|---|---|
| Spatial Addition | Visuospatial information | Work out a final spatial arrangement from several pieces of information |
| Symbol Span | Designs and their relative locations | Retain the mental images of designs and where they appeared |
| Running Digits | Spoken digits | Keep recent auditory information current as input continues |
| Digit Sequencing | Spoken digits | Retain a completed set and rearrange it into numerical order |
Symbol Span places greater emphasis on retaining designs and their positions. Spatial Addition places greater emphasis on combining and filtering stored spatial information to produce a new arrangement.
A relatively higher Spatial Addition result than Symbol Span can indicate that working with layouts was easier than remembering design-location pairs. A higher result than the auditory tasks can indicate stronger visual-spatial manipulation than holding and updating spoken digits. How to read WAIS results explains how to interpret these differences within the wider profile.
BrainTypeIQ Visual Reversal uses visual sequence reversal
BrainTypeIQ Visual Reversal also uses visuospatial working memory, but requires a visually presented sequence of locations to be retained and reproduced in reverse order. It provides a visual-sequence view of BrainTypeIQ's working-memory domain and five-domain cognitive profile.