Spatial Ability a Predictor of Creativity In Science

HonorPoncaCityDotCom writes "The gift for spatial reasoning — the kind that may inspire an imaginative child to dismantle a clock or the family refrigerator — is sometimes referred to as the 'orphan ability' for its tendency to go undetected. Now Douglas Quenqua reports that according to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, spatial ability may be a greater predictor of future creativity or innovation than math or verbal skills, particularly in math, science and related fields. 'Evidence has been mounting over several decades that spatial ability gives us something that we don't capture with traditional measures (PDF) used in educational selection,' says David Lubinski, the lead author of the study and a psychologist at Vanderbilt. 'We could be losing some modern-day Edisons and Fords.' Spatial ability can be best defined as the ability to 'generate, retain, retrieve, and transform well-structured visual images.' Some examples of great inventors who have used their high levels of spatial ability to innovate include James Watt, who is known for improving the steam engine, and James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. Nikola Tesla, who provided the basis for alternating current (AC) power systems, is said (or fabled) to have been able to visualize an entire working engine in his mind and be able to test each part over time to see what would break first. Testing spatial aptitude is not particularly difficult but is simply not part of standardized testing because it is considered a cognitive function — the realm of I.Q. and intelligence tests — and is not typically a skill taught in school. 'It's not like math or English, it's not part of an academic curriculum,' says Dr. David Geary. 'It's more of a basic competence. For that reason it just wasn't on people's minds when developing these tests.'"

Comments

Re:OK, we get it

[foniksonik]

Wrong. The master skill is laziness. The desire to automate everything so you can sit back and read a good book or use spacial abilities to hack on your home automation Arduino kit, so you can sit back and read a good book.

The big question

[wisebabo]

Is good spatial ability because of / or an indicator of creativity?
Or, is creativity because of good spatial ability?

If spatial ability has some sort of causal effect on creativity then LEGOs (and no, I don't work for them! :) should be required part of every childhood. (How many science Nobel prize winners used LEGOs/tinker toys/wooden blocks when they were little?).

Also it would be an interesting to see what effect watching movies or even playing video games have had (looking at images on a 2D surface) have had. Maybe that explains the term "couch potatoes" (looking at 2D images exclusively might make the brain very UN-creative). Perhaps 3D video games like FPS would more than make up for this and games like minecraft even more so. Still this is another reason why fully immersive virtual reality can't come soon enough (that is if we don't all get sick from vertigo)!

I wonder if the stock price if LEGO has changed due to the findings from this study?

Re:Wow this is the best handwaving I've seen in a

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

>What can you do with two sticks and a string?
The only answer is Nunchucks.

Re:'Bell Curve' has been debunked

[Sique]

The normal distribution is just a mathematically very easy handable distribution, thus about everyone tries to morph and recalculate scales until the data set somehow follows a normal distribution. It does in no way mean that the observed phenomenon follows a normal distribution. IQ for instance seems to have had two local maxima, one slightly below the median and one around 125, but recalculating the scores of the IQ questions levelled those two maxima.

Or to make it more explicit: IQ is especially scaled and scored to ensure the distribution of the scores is gaussian.

Re:Wow this is the best handwaving I've seen in a

[SteveAstro]

And who brings on the brighter kid, handicapped by his dull team-member ?