Spatial Ability - Skill and Ability Video
Spatial ability means being able to understand how things fit together in a given space. Forming mental images of the work at hand has always been important for builders, and it's also key to many scientific, technical, and creative careers.
People who have spatial ability can easily extract and use information in diagrams, pictures, and models. It also lets them visualize the possibilities in a project and make an appropriate plan. That's why careers in the visual media or design fields require superior spatial skills for laying out attractive advertising campaigns or pleasing furniture arrangements.
This mental skill helps people figure out maps and interpret technical drawings. Public safety officers use it to learn the geography of their assigned area. Landscape architects use it to reinvent outdoor spaces with plants. Mill rights, use it to follow blueprints to install factory machinery and mechanics to repair it. It even helps doctors evaluate sonograms and X rays.
Spatial skills also help us to understand size, volume, order, and time. These concepts are as important to the chef preparing the signature dishes in a restaurant, as they are to a chemical engineer calculating the storage needs for chemicals to be shipped across the country.
A key spatial ability is being able to mentally rotate images or see them in 3D. That's how an architect imagines a new structure, and how the drafter translates those specs into a drawing. It helps pilots stay on course and make sense of the data on their instrument panels to safely land the plane. Spatial ability means having an excellent sense of space and objects in it.