Visuospatial ability
ability to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures
Visuospatial ability or visual-spatial ability is the ability to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures. It is typically measured with simple cognitive tests and is predictive of user performance with some kinds of user interfaces. Visuospatial skills are needed for motor coordination (directed movement), depth and distance perception, and spatial navigation.
Measurement
The cognitive tests used to measure visuospatial ability including mental rotation tasks like the Mental Rotations Test or mental cutting tasks like the Mental Cutting Test; and cognitive tests like the VZ-1 (Form Board), VZ-2 (Paper Folding), and VZ-3 (Surface Development) tests from the Kit of Factor-Reference cognitive tests produced by Educational Testing Service. Though the descriptions of spatial visualization and mental rotation sound similar, mental rotation is a particular task that can be accomplished using spatial visualization.
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 visuospatial 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.
“Visuospatial ability” enters the record as ability to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Visuospatial, ability and mentally can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Visuospatial ability” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.