Spatial ability splits into small, large, and dynamic factors

Correct: B — Multiple weakly-correlated abilities — including small-scale spatial visualization, large-scale environmental learning, and dynamic spatial reasoning — that load on partially distinct factors

Hegarty (2010) reviewed factor-analytic and individual-difference work spanning small-scale tasks (paper-folding, mental rotation), large-scale wayfinding and environmental learning, and dynamic spatial reasoning (mechanical inference, perspective tracking). Correlations across these domains are positive but modest, and confirmatory factor analyses repeatedly favor multi-factor models over a single 'spatial g'. She argued that small-scale and large-scale spatial abilities draw on partially distinct mechanisms — different reference frames, different reliance on body-based versus allocentric information — and that training and assessment should respect these dissociations. The chapter is widely cited as the modern map of the spatial-cognition factor space.