Artem has a doctor of veterinary medicine degree.
What does a radiologist, engineer, baseball player, and a cartographer have in common? They are all people who must have some pretty good spatial abilities. Spatial ability can be seen as a form of intelligence where a person demonstrates the capacity to mentally generate, transform, and rotate a visual image and thus understand and recall spatial relationships between real and imagined objects.
This lesson is going to provide numerous examples of spatial abilities.
Jim is using his spatial abilities today to mail a package to his mom. See, he has a relatively small box and a lot of weird-shaped objects he has to put into that box. So when he is trying to pack the box, he first imagines in his mind which objects will fit where in the box and thus, how they can be best arranged with respect to one another in such a confined space.
Annie has really long and beautiful hair. But that hair takes a lot of effort to maintain! She spends about 10-15 minutes every morning brushing it in front of the mirror. She relies on spatial ability to understand the mirror image and how to brush her hair while looking into the mirror.
Then there's little Jack. Little Jack is starting 4th grade today. It's the same school as the one he went to during 3rd grade, but it's been a long summer break. So as Jack rides on the bus to school, he recalls the layout of the school in his head to figure out where his first class is going to be and how best to get there.
Morgan is driving to work today. Morgan knows that if he doesn't watch the road and surrounding cars and objects carefully, he might hit one of them, ruining his day. So Morgan uses his spatial ability to carefully drive around obstacles, between cars, and stay on the road in general!
 |
Alexa is traveling through Patagonia. Problem is? There's no signal for her to use GPS. Alexa has to rely on a good old map. She looks at the map, a topographical one at that, and tries to figure out where she is on the map and where she needs to go and how to get there in the surrounding area. She relies heavily on her spatial ability to relate the map to the real world and vice versa to find her way around.
Then there's Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith is a physician. Part of his job is to review x-rays for any signs of a problem. But Dr. Smith must really know his anatomy really well in order to figure out where the problem is exactly in the body and how it may affect the person. For example, if he sees an x-ray with a broken bone, he needs to recall in his mind the spatial relationship between the bone, surrounding tissue, nerves, and blood vessels as well as the fragment of bone in order to deduce how dangerous that fracture might be to the patient.
And there's also astrophysicist Mary. Mary imagines the solar system and universe as well as the galaxies throughout the universe and how they are spaced with respect to one another every day. She must be able to manipulate the universe inside her own head to do her job!
Let's not forget about Rick, an engineer. Rick designs some of the latest aircraft. He needs some really good spatial abilities in order to imagine, understand, build, and troubleshoot various moving parts within the entire aircraft.
And how about Nancy? She's an architect who needs to imagine and then draw an entire building and how its various parts will relate to one another and the surrounding environment.
So whether it's day to day stuff or professional concerns, our spatial ability is really important to us and we often don't even think about it.
Spatial ability refers to the capacity to mentally generate, transform, and rotate a visual image and thus understand and recall spatial relationships between objects. This can be seen in examples like:
To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account
Already a member? Log In
BackAlready registered? Log in here for access
Did you know… We have over 200 college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level.
To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page
Not sure what college you want to attend yet? Study.com has thousands of articles about every imaginable degree, area of study and career path that can help you find the school that's right for you.
Back To Course
Introduction to Psychology: Homework Help Resource14 chapters | 246 lessons
{{courseNav.course.topics.length}} chapters | {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}} lessons | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? 's' : ''}}
Study.com video lessons have helped over 30 million students.
"I learned more in 10 minutes than 1 month of chemistry classes"
- Ashlee P.
"I learned more in 10 minutes than 1 month of chemistry classes"
- Ashlee P.
"I aced the CLEP exam and earned 3 college credits!"
- Clair S.
Over 65 million users have prepared for {{displayNameByProductKey[registrationData.product || testPrepCocoon]}} and other exams on Study.com
"The videos have changed the way I teach! The videos on Study.com accomplish in 5 minutes what would take me an entire class."
- Chris F.
Over 65 million users have prepared for {{displayNameByProductKey[registrationData.product || testPrepCocoon]}} and other exams on Study.com
