What is Spatial Ability ?

use of space. Two major components of spatial ability have been identified: spatial relations
and spatial visualization (McGee, 1979; Burnett & Lane, 1980; Elliot & Smith, 1983;
Pellegrino et al., 1984; Clements & Battista, 1992).
In standardized spatial ability tests, spatial relations tasks involve 2D and 3D
rotations and cube comparisons . Subjects are required to decide that one of
the alternatives is the rotated version of the original stimulus. This factor seems to tap the
ability to engage rapidly and accurately in mental transformation or rotation processes for
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International Journal of Mathematics Teaching and Learning
April 2003
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judgements about the identity of a pair of stimuli (Pellegrino, et al., 1984). Indeed, the
stimulus is rotated as a whole body.
Spatial visualization is described as the ability to imagine rotations of objects or
their parts in 3-D space (Burnet & Lane, 1980) by folding and unfolding, for example
(McGee, 1979). The manipulation could be in a holistic, as well as piece-by-piece fashion
(Battista, Wheatley & Talsma, 1989) and the movements must be imagined (Clement &
Battista, 1992). The kinds of activities used to measure spatial visualization ability include
form board, paper folding, and surface development (see Appendix). Such tasks frequently
require a manipulation in which there is movement among the internal parts of a complex
configuration and/or the folding and unfolding of flat patterns (Pellegrino, et al., 1984). In a
short definition, spatial visualization is the mental manipulation and integration of stimuli
consisting of more than one part or movable parts.
As understood from the definitions, both factors involve some kind of mental
manipulation of visua l images. In just the same way, recent literature shows general
agreement that spatial ability is the mental manipulation of objects (Kovac, 1989) and their
parts in 2D and 3D space. Still, however, the differences between the tasks seem to
represent two correlated dimensions of performance: speed-power and complexity
(Pellegrino, et al., 1984). In spatial relations tests subjects are required to complete the
tasks in certain time, (i.e., speed is important) while visualization tests are relatively less
speeded, (i.e., power is important). Spatial relations problems, although varying among
themselves in complexity, involve less complex stimuli than spatial visualization tasks. As
seen, the differences between the factors occur at the task level in terms of difficulty or
complexity and the testing conditions such as timing. Therefore, it can be concluded that
this separation of visual ability is artificial, and in fact, it is uni- faceted.[/b][center]