Spatial visualization ability
Spatial visualization ability or visual-spatial ability is the
Measurement
The cognitive tests used to measure spatial visualization ability including
The Minnesota Paper Form Board Test involves giving participants a shape and a set of smaller shapes which they are then instructed to determine which combination of small shapes will fill the larger shape completely without overlapping. The Paper Folding test involves showing participants a sequence of folds in a piece of paper, through which a set of holes is then punched. The participants must choose which of a set of unfolded papers with holes corresponds to the one they have just seen.
The Surface Development test involves giving participants a flat shape with numbered sides and a three-dimensional shape with lettered sides and asking the participants to indicate which numbered side corresponds to which lettered side.
History
The construct of spatial visualization ability was first identified as separate from general intelligence in the 20th Century, and its implications for computer system design were identified in the 1980s.
In 1987, Kim Vicente and colleagues ran a battery of cognitive tests on a set of participants and then determined which cognitive abilities correlated with performance on a computerized information search task. They found that the only significant predictors of performance were vocabulary and spatial visualization ability, and that those with high spatial visualization ability were twice as fast to perform the task as those with lower levels of spatial visualization ability.[2]
Age differences
Older adults tend to perform worse on measures of spatial visualization ability than younger adults, and this effect seems to occur even among people who use spatial visualization frequently on the job, such as
Gender differences
According to certain studies, men on average have one standard deviation higher spatial intelligence quotient than women.
The gender difference in spatial ability was found to be attributed to morphological differences between male and female brains. The parietal lobe is a part of the brain that is recognized to be involved in spatial ability, especially in 2d- and 3d mental rotation. Researchers at the University of Iowa found that the thicker grey matter in the parietal lobe of females led to a disadvantage in mental rotations, and that the larger surface areas of the parietal lobe of males led to an advantage in mental rotations. The results found by the researches support the notion that gender differences in spatial abilities arose during human evolution such that both sexes cognitively and neurologically developed to behave adaptively. However, the effect of socialization and environment on the difference in spatial ability is still open for debate. [7]
Other studies suggest gender differences in spatial thinking may be explained by a stereotype threat effect. The fear of fulfilling stereotypes negatively affects the performance which results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.[8]
See also
- Aphantasia
- Baddeley's model of working memory
- Graphical perception
- Nonverbal learning disorder (visual-spatial learning disorder)
- Proof without words
- Spatial ability
- Visual thinking
References
Inline citations
General references
- Alonso, D. L. (1998). "The effects of individual differences in spatial visualization ability on dual-task performance". Retrieved 2006-05-14.
- Downing, R. E.; Moore, J. L.; Brown, S. W. (2005). "The effects and interaction of spatial visualization and domain expertise on information seeking". .
- Ozer, D. J. (1987). "Personality, intelligence, and spatial visualization: Correlates of mental rotations test performance". PMID 3612485.
- Salthouse, T. A.; Babcock, R. L.; Skovronek, E.; Mitchell, D. R. D.; Palmon, R. (1990). "Age and experience effects in spatial visualization". .
- Salthouse, T. A.; Mitchell, D. R. D (1990). "Effects of age and naturally occurring experience on spatial visualization performance". .
- Zhang, H.; Salvendy, G. (2001). "The implications of visualization ability and structure preview design for web information search tasks". S2CID 1576458.