The block design test (BDT) has been used for over a century in research and clinical contexts as a measure of spatial cognition, both as a singular ability and as part of more comprehensive intelligence assessment. Traditionally, the BDT has been scored using methods that do not reflect the full potential of individual differences that could be measured by the test. Recent advancements in technology, including eye-tracking, embedded sensor systems, and artificial intelligence, have provided new opportunities to measure and analyze data from the BDT. In this methodological review, we outline the information that BDT can assess, review several recent advancements in measurement and analytic methods, discuss potential future uses of these methods, and advocate for further research using these methods.

This paper presents a proof-of-concept for a new paradigm for analyzing human-object interactions with high spatiotemporal resolution. The system comprises a set of smart IoT objects, equipped with sensors to monitor their spatial states and surroundings, including other smart objects. Each object is able to detect, store, and wirelessly report its orientation, rotation, adjacency, and various types of movements, both its own and those of neighboring objects. By collating this data, an analytical model can reconstruct a participant’s spatiotemporal handling of the objects with millisecond resolution, thereby inferring their spatial reasoning process. The objective is to establish a IoT echo systems for monitoring, characterizing, and enhancing human spatial reasoning through this novel approach of observing interactions between humans and objects with agency. The paper delves into the engineering details of the IoT system, followed by a series of spatial reasoning-related experiments. Subsequently, analytical methods are developed to gain insights into participants’ spatial reasoning within the context of two well-known tasks: the Tower of Hanoi and the Wechsler Block Design Task. Finally, the results are presented to demonstrate the practicality of the developed IoT-style smart object system for quantitatively understanding spatial reasoning in a data-driven manner.

Childhood experiences and activities, including sports, videogames, and toys, have long been of interest in understanding cognitive development and later individual differences. In particular, the malleability of spatial reasoning suggests that early experiences, including a variety of spatial activities, may have a significant impact on the development of students’ spatial ability skills. In the present study, we sought to update the most widely used spatial activity survey and propose a survey of videogame usage. Both surveys were administered to a large sample of adults with children aged 7 to 14, with a sample (N = 1210) diverse in race, ethnicity, and gender. We explored the survey’s descriptives, scale design, and factor structure to support future use.

Standardized cognitive assessments are essential in research but often limited by proprietary restrictions and methodological constraints. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of two public-domain International Cognitive Ability Resource (ICAR) measures implemented in the Mobile Toolbox (MTB) assessment library: Puzzle Completion and Block Rotation. Using a sample of 100 adults (18–82 years), we assessed internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and construct validity compared to gold-standard measures. Results demonstrated acceptable reliability for both Puzzle Completion and Block Rotation. Each measure showed moderate to strong correlations with respective gold-standard assessments: Puzzle Completion correlated with Raven’s Progressive Matrices (r = 0.40), and Block Rotation with Mental Rotation Test (r = 0.46). Practice effects were non-significant. Both demonstrated the ability to discriminate between verbal and nonverbal abilities. Findings were consistent with previous ICAR validations, suggesting MTB provides a viable option for remote self-administration while preserving measurement integrity. This enables larger sample collection and ecological assessment of cognitive abilities outside of laboratory settings.