Taxonomy of spatial skills
See the table below, to have an idea of the variety of spatial skills as they have been defined by the different scholars how have reaserched the realm of spatial skills/abilities.
| Spatial Ability | Definition/ Task(s) associated to the ability |
| Small-scale | |
| Closure Speed | Identify an incomplete/distorted picture or combine disconnected, vague, visual stimuli into a meaningful whole (Lohman et al., 1987) [15] |
| Figural Fluency | Produce novel figures (Ruff, 2011) [19] |
| Flexibility of Closure | Break one gestalt from another or find a simple figure embedded in a more complex shape (Lohman et al., 1987) [15] |
| Mental Animation | Infer the state of one component of a system given information about the states of the other system components and the relations between the components (Hegarty, 1992) [7] |
| Mental Folding | Mentally imagine the folding of a 2- dimensional pattern into a mental representation of a 3- dimensional box, or mentally unfolding the 3-dimensional box into a 2-dimensional pattern (Lohman, 2000) [14] |
| Mental Rotation | Rapidly and accurately rotate a two- or three-dimensional figure (Linn & Petersen, 1985) [12] |
| Perceptual Speed | Speed in comparing figures or symbols, scanning to find figures or symbols (Ekstrom et al., 1976) [6] |
| Perspective Taking | Identify changes in the point of view of object or oneself with respect to the environment (Hegarty et al., 2006) [8] |
| Visual Memory | Short term memory of visual stimuli (Lohman, 1979) [13] |
| Spatial Orientation | Determine how an object or scene will appear when viewed from a new perspective (Lohman, 1979) [13] |
| Spatial Scanning | Visualise a path out of a maze or a field with many obstacles (Schneider & McGrew, 2012) [21] |
| Visual Penetrative Ability | Mentally imagine what is inside of a solid object (Kali & Orion, 1996) [11] |
| Spatial Visualization | Apprehend a spatial form, shape, or scene while often at the same time rotating it in two or three dimensions one or more times (Lohman et al., 1987) [15]. Manipulate, rotate, twist, or invert objects without reference to one’s self (McGee, 1979) [17]. Mentally transform or manipulate the spatial properties of an object (Lowrie, et al., 2019) [16] |
| Spatial Perception | Identify spatial relations among task components in spite of distracting information, such as identifying an object whose orientation is different from the others (Linn & Petersen,1985) [12] |
| Serial Integration | Integrate temporally speeded visual stimuli. (Lohman et al., 1987) [15] |
| Visuospatial Working Memory | The memory system devoted to maintaining and processing spatial information (Meneghetti et al., 2014) [18]. It processes environmental information using both indirect sources, such as maps (Coluccia & Louse, 2004) [5], or environment descriptions (Gyselinck & Meneghetti, 2011) [9]. |
| Large-scale | |
| Draw Sketch Maps | An external measure of the self-reported feeling of orientation (Coluccia et al., 2007) [4] |
| Landmark Recognition | Relate to the landmarks along the routes (Sas & Noor, 2009) [20]. Searching for and recognizing a landmark in a scene according to the visual or verbal descriptions (Zhang et al., 2014) [25] |
| Scene Recognition | Recognize scenes from the original walk (Allen et al., 1996) [1] or when someone moves to a different viewpoint (Wang, 1999) [24] |
| Scene Sequencing | Nonmetric temporal-spatial knowledge of a route (Allen et al., 1996) [1] |
| Give Directions | External measure of an individuals’ knowledge of the environment (Blades & Medlicott, 1992) [3] |
| Interpret Directions | Translate route information (verbally given) in a map like representation of the travel (Juan-Espinosa et al., 2000) [10] |
| Estimate Distances | Provide Euclidean or “crow-fly” estimates from one viewpoint to a series of unseen target locations along the walk (Allen et al., 1996) [1] |
| Estimate Directions | Provide Euclidean or “crow-fly” distance estimates from one viewpoint to a series of unseen target locations (Allen et al., 1996) [1] |
| Path Integration | Keep track of a start location on the basis of subsequent self-motion information (Bird & Burgess, 2009) [2]. Integrate self-motion information to estimate one’s current position and orientation relative to the origin (Wan et al., 2010) [23] |
| Point to local and distant locations | Point to the direction of the target object relative to the imagined heading (Shelton, & McNamara, 2001) [22] |
References
- Allen, G. L., Kirasic, K. C., Dobson, S. H., Long, R. G., & Beck, S. (1996). Predicting environmental learning from spatial abilities: An indirect route. Intelligence, 22(3), 327–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-2896(96)90026-4
- Bird, C. M., & Burgess, N. (2009). Spatial memory: assessment in animals. In L.R. Squire (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Academic Press, Oxford, 187-194. 10.1016/B978-008045046-9.00288-6
- Blades, M., & Medlicott, L. (1992). Developmental differences in the ability to give route directions from a map. Journal of Environmental Psychology,12, 175-185, 10.1016/S0272-4944(05)80069-6
- Coluccia, E., Bosco, A. & Brandimonte, M. A. (2007). The role of visuo-spatial working memory in map learning: new findings from a map drawing paradigm. Psychological Research, 71, 359–372. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-006-0090-2
- Coluccia, E., & Louse, G. (2004). Gender differences in spatial orientation: A review. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 329–340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2004.08.006
- Ekstrom, R., French, J., Harman, H., & Dermen, D. (1976). Manual for kit of factor referenced cognitive tests. Educational Testing Services. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD0410915.pdf
- Hegarty, M. (1992). Mental animation: Inferring motion from static displays of mechanical systems. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18(5), 1084–1102. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.18.5.1084
- Hegarty, M., Montello, D. R., Richardson, A. E., Ishikawa, T. and Lovelace, K. (2006). Spatial abilities at different scales: Individual differences in aptitude-test performance and spatial-layout learning. Intelligence. 34(2), 151-176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2005.09.005
- Gyselinck, V., & Meneghetti, C. (2011). The role of spatial working memory in understanding verbal descriptions: A window onto the interaction between verbal and spatial processing. In A. Van Dierendonck, & A. Szmalec (Eds.), Spatial working memory, 159–180. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12193
- Juan-Espinosa, M., Abad, F. J., Colom, R., & Fernandez-Truchaud, M. (2000). Individual differences in large-spaces orientation: G and beyond? Pers. Indiv. Differ., 29, 85-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00179-8
- Kali, Y., & Orion, N. (1996). Spatial abilities of high-school students in the perception of geologic structures. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, v. 33, 369-391. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-2736(199604)33:4<369::AID-TEA2>3.0.CO;2-Q
- Linn, M. C. & Petersen, A. C. (1985). Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 56(6), 1479-1498 https://doi.org/10.2307/1130467
- Lohman, D. F. (1979). Spatial ability: A review and reanalysis of the correlational literatures (Tech. Rep. No. 8). Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Aptitude Research Project, School of Education https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA075972
- Lohman, D. F. (2000). Complex information processing and intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of Intelligence, pp−340. 285. New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press Complex information processing and intelligence https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807947.015
- Lohman, D. F., Pellegrino, J. W., Alderton, D. L., & Regian, J. W. (1987). Dimensions and components of individual differences in spatial abilities. In S.H. Irvine, & S.N. Newstead (Eds.), Intelligence and Cognition: Contemporary Frames of Reference, 253–312. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Nijhoff https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9437-5_6
- Lowrie, T., Logan, T., & Hegarty, M. (2019). The influence of spatial visualization training on students’ spatial reasoning and mathematics performance. Journal of Cognition and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2019.1653298
- McGee, M. (1979). Human spatial abilities: Sources of sex differences. New York
- Meneghetti, C., Borella, E., Pastore, M. & De Beni, R. (2014). The role of spatial abilities and self-assessments in cardinal point orientation across the lifespan. Learning and Individual Differences, 35, 113-121. 10.1016/j.lindif.2014.07.006
- Ruff, R. (2011). Figural Fluency Test. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79948-3_2048
- Sas, C., & Noor, N. M. (2009). A meta-analysis on the correlation between measurements of spatial tasks and standardized tests of environmental spatial abilities. Cogn Process. 297-301. doi: 10.1007/s10339-009-0315-6. PMID: 19693594.
- Schneider, J., & McGrew, K. (2012). The Cattell-Horn-Carroll model of intelligence. In D. Flanagan & P. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests, and Issues (3rd ed., pp. 99–144). New York: Guilford Press http://www.iapsych.com/articles/schneider2012.pdf
- Shelton, A. L., & McNamara, T. P. (2001). Systems of spatial reference in human memory. Cogn. Psychol. 43, 274–310 https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.2001.0758
- Wan, X., Wang, R. F., Crowell, J A. (2010). The effect of active selection in human path integration. Journal of Vision;10(11) 25. doi: https://doi.org/10.1167/10.11.25
- Wang, R. F. (1999) Representing a stable environment by egocentric updating and invariant representations. Spatial Cognition and Computation 1, 431–445. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010043814328
- Zhang, X., Li, Q., Fang, Z., Lu, S., Shaw S. L. (2014). An Assessment Method for Landmark Recognition Time in Real Scenes J. Environ. Psychol., 40, 206-217, 10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.06.008
If you are interested to find out more read the paper by Newcombe, N., Shipley, T. (2015). Thinking About Spatial Thinking: New Typology, New Assessments. In: Gero, J. (eds) Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity. Springer, Dordrecht.