Spatial ability
Spatial abilities are also important for success in fields such as sports, technical aptitude, mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, economic forecasting, meteorology, chemistry and physics.
[3] It consists of being able to perceive and visually understand outside spatial information such as features, properties, measurement, shapes, position and motion.
Tests that measure spatial perception include the rod and frame test, where subjects must place a rod vertically while viewing a frame orientation of 22 degrees in angle, or the water-level task, where subjects have to draw or identify a horizontal line in a tilted bottle.
For example, a study found that cricket players who were faster at picking up information from briefly presented visual displays were significantly better batsmen in an actual game.
For example, Hegarty (2004) showed that people manipulate mental representations for reasoning about mechanical problems, such as how gears or pulleys work.
[12] Similarly, Schwartz and Black (1999) found that doing such mental simulations such as pouring water improves people's skill to find the solution to questions about the amount of tilt required for containers of different heights and widths.
[13] Jigsaw puzzles and Rubik's cube are also activities that involve higher level of mental rotation and can be practiced to improve spatial abilities over time.
[14][15][16] Mental rotation is also unique and distinct from the other spatial abilities because it also involves areas associated with motor simulation in the brain.
It is used in the temporary storage and manipulation of visual-spatial information such as memorizing shapes, colours, location or motion of objects in space.
[3] Researchers have found that spatial ability plays an important role in advanced educational credentials in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
For example, a 2009 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that 45% of those with STEM PhDs were within top percentage of high spatial ability in a group of 400,000 participants who were analyzed for 11 years since they were in the 12th grade.
[25] The researchers then concluded how important spatial ability is for STEM and as a factor in achieving advanced educational success in that field.
[1] Spatial manipulation ability is also important in the field of structural geology, when visually imagining how rocks change through time, such as migration of a magma body through crust or progressive folding of a strati-graphic succession.
[27] Another study found that numerical estimation might rely on integrating different visual-spatial cues (diameter, size, location, measurement) to infer an answer.
[29] Another 2015 study published in the journal of Frontiers in Psychology also found that numerical processing and arithmetic performance may rely on visual perceptual ability.
[30] A 2007 study published in the journal of Cognitive Science also found that spatial visualization ability is crucial for solving kinematic problems in physics.
[31] Nonetheless, current literature indicates that spatial abilities specifically mental rotation, is crucial for achieving success in various fields of chemistry, engineering and physics.
