Teen spatial ability predicts adult STEM achievement decades later

Correct: B — STEM degree completion and creative occupational achievement decades later

Drawing on a 50-year longitudinal dataset of nearly half a million U.S. adolescents, Wai, Lubinski, and Benbow (2009) found that spatial ability assessed in adolescence uniquely predicted whether participants later earned STEM degrees, secured patents, and produced refereed scientific publications — over and above math and verbal SAT scores. The result reframed spatial reasoning as a 'neglected dimension' of talent identification that standard college-admissions tests largely ignore. It also provided one of the largest evidence bases for the claim that spatial skills, alongside numerical and verbal skills, channel people toward technical careers.