SPATIAL-VISUAL Intelligence: Characteristics, Examples and Activities

The ability of human beings to locate us is vital and essential for survival and adaptation. This competence is about spatial-visual intelligence, which is involved in tasks as diverse as driving and parking the car, handling tools, orientation and interpretation of maps or playing games Chess. If you want to know more about this intelligence and how to exercise it, keep reading this Psychology-Online article: Visual-spatial intelligence: characteristics, examples and activities.

Index

1. What is spatial-visual intelligence
2. Visual-spatial intelligence: characteristics
3. Visual-spatial intelligence: examples
4. Visual-spatial intelligence: activities
5. Visual-spatial intelligence test

Spatial intelligence is one of the eight types of competences that the psychologist identified Howard Gardner in his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. This theory, which goes beyond the academic concept of intelligence and its traditional measurement through written tests, represents an extension of the object of study in the field of human intelligence.

Visual-spatial intelligence

The Ispace intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive reality and its details for the formation of mental models that can be rotated and manipulated abstractly or well reproduced graphically. It also includes the ability to mentally recreate specific elements without their physical presence.

This intelligence can be summarized as ability to think and process information in three dimensions. Multiple cognitive processes are involved in spatial intelligence, such as creativity, the visual memory, the spatial reasoning, the capacity for abstraction and spatial orientation. That is why it is an intelligence that has a role in both science and art.

Contrary to what is usually believed, spatial intelligence does not depend on visual ability, it is not an essential element in it. Although vision is one of the most important senses for the perception of the environment, the mental representation of an object or the environment can be made by touch or hearing. Therefore, in this skill the capacity for abstraction and mental projection than the senses used for it.

Regarding the importance of this competence, it is essential for the resolution of various tasks of daily life, such as the distribution of furniture in a house and for orientation. Regarding the cerebral location of this ability, it has been located mainly in the right cerebral hemisphere, although not exclusively. Of the lobes, the parietal It is the one that has the greatest role in spatial intelligence.

Below we list a series of characteristics of spatial-visual intelligence typical of those with a high development of said intelligence:

• High sense of orientation and location, as well as map reading proficiency.
• Ability to manipulate color, lines, shapes, figures and space and the relationship between all of them.
• Interest in various disciplines of art like painting, drawing, sculpture and photography.
• Ability for graphical representation of both visual and spatial elements.
• Spatial memory: may be able to remember a space and its details easily
• Perception of reality paying attention to spatial relationships, distances and dimensions.
• Ability to recognize an object or image regardless of the position in which it is
• Ability to anticipate spatial variations in objects through rotation and mental manipulation.
• Faculty in identifying similarities and differences between various specific elements.
• Use of various visual resources, as schemes or mind maps, in the organization of information
• Very observant people.
• Recognition and distinction of the whole and its parts.
• Excellent performance in solving riddles, puzzles and mazes, as well as in the interpretation of graphics and geometric shapes.

Visual-spatial intelligence: professions

This type of intelligence is involved in a wide range of disciplines such as design, architecture, photography, astronomy, surveying, engineering, sculpture, surgery and in pilots and navigators.

Various historical figures stand out throughout history for their spatial-visual intelligence:

• Lucien Hervé: He was a Hungarian photographer of the 20th century, best known for his photography of architecture. His work stands out for its capture of geometry and the play of light and shadow. The choice of the thematic development of his photography is based on an encounter with Le Corbusier, a pioneer of modern architecture. Hervé has received various awards, mentions and honors for his photographic activity, which highlights his ability to combine humanistic vision with the architectural eye.
• Tamara de Lempicka: Polish painter of the 20th century. He stands out for his graphic depiction of the human figure, as well as for his style art deco, an artistic movement that is based on geometry and the representation of various elements of the environment through it. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the art deco, both in Europe and the United States, being she also one of the most outstanding portraitists of her generation.
• Antoni Gaudí: Another character who represents spatial-visual intelligence is the Spanish architect born in the mid-nineteenth century and the greatest exponent of Catalan modernism. She stands out for her sense of geometry and volume, as well as her capacity for the mental projection of her works through the imagination before capturing them. In fact, on most occasions she did not use plans, if not three-dimensional models to represent her ideas. He was able to integrate different artisan currents in architecture, as well as introducing new techniques when dealing with materials, such as trencadis.

Spatial intelligence, like the other types identified by Gardner, can be exercised to stimulate its development. We show you some activities or tasks that can be carried out on a day-to-day basis to develop spatial-visual intelligence:

• Watch: pay more attention to the objects of your daily life and their details, try to remember them later and project them mentally without them being physically present. You can also rotate them mentally, thus accessing other perspectives of it.
• Visual organization: When managing information or planning, try to make use of visual tools such as graphs, diagrams, diagrams, etc.
• Play: There are a variety of games and hobbies that involve this ability. Some of them are strategy games like chess, others like Rubik's cube, tangrams, Jenga, origami, LEGO, 3D Borok puzzles etc.
• Video game: There are a series of video games that can be helpful for the stimulation of spatial intelligence, some of them are Q.U.B.E., The Witness or Antichamber. Classics like Tetris or Mario Bros. also stand out. Another option is to download the Lumosity app.
• Lead: driving a vehicle regularly is beneficial for the development of this intelligence, due to that requires attention to the environment and its elements, distances, movements and relationships between objects.
• Photography: It may be a good idea to practice photography on the subject you like, as well as experiment with taking photos of objects from different angles and perspectives.
• Spatial vocabulary: try to use a specific vocabulary with spatial references. Therefore, try to avoid terms like here or there and use more precise descriptions about the location or location of an item.
• Orientation: take excursions or walks around your city or place of residence using a map and its interpretation. You can also plan in advance the route to take and do without gps tools.

If you want to know what is the intelligence that predominates in you, you can do the following multiple intelligences test, Among which are:

• Linguistic Intelligence
• Logical Intelligence - Mathematics
• Visual Intelligence - Spatial
• Kinesthetic or Body-kinetic Intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Interpersonal intelligence
• Intrapersonal intelligence
• Naturalistic Intelligence

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Visual-spatial intelligence: characteristics, examples and activities, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.

• Dziekonski, M. (2003). Spatial Intelligence: A Look at Howard Gardner. ArteOficio Magazine, 2(2).
• Lapalma, F. (2001). What is that we call Intelligence? The Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Education. Ibero-American Journal of Education, 25(1), 1-6.
• Vázquez, S. M., & Biggio, M. N. (2011). Spatial reasoning and academic performance. Interdisciplinary, 28(1), 145-158.