Spatial skill predicts success on sequence stratigraphic interpretation

Sequence stratigraphic interpretation and three-dimensional spatial and spatiotemporal skills are considered important for the petroleum industry. However, little is known about the relationship between the two. This study begins to fill this gap by testing whether spatial skills predict success on a sequence stratigraphic interpretation task. Students in this study (N=78) were enrolled in undergraduate or graduate stratigraphy-focused courses at three U.S. state universities. Students completed (1) a sequence stratigraphic interpretation task with a sequence stratigraphic diagram and Wheeler diagram and (2) two spatial skills tests. Findings of simple linear regressions show that both disembedding (extracting or finding a pattern among other features, which is typically assessed by the hidden-figures test) and mental folding and unfolding (as assessed by the surface development test) are predictive of student success on the full sequence stratigraphic interpretation task. A nested regression, entering mental folding as the initial variable and disembedding as the secondary variable, showed that mental folding and unfolding accounted for almost all of the variance accounted for by disembedding in the simple regression. This may reflect the need to employ disembedding for the test of mental folding. Because the test of disembedding and the test of mental folding and unfolding were correlated, the distinct role of disembedding in stratigraphy remains unclear. However, the results clearly show that mental folding and unfolding is related to student success in sequence stratigraphic interpretation. Future studies should characterize how students utilize these skills, try to determine the causal direction of this effect, and identify good practices for supporting students in the classroom.