Spatial Ability a Predictor of Creativity In Science 199
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.'"
Wow this is the best handwaving I've seen in a bit (Score:2, Interesting)
Posit two things that are really not measurable (spatial ability and creativity) and then suggest they are correlated.
A whole lot of rainbows and moonbeams on this one.
Re:Wow this is the best handwaving I've seen in a (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll expand on this.
What can you do with two sticks and a string?
Someone who is creative can take the sticks and string and make a variety of things or use them in a variety of ways.
Someone with spacial abilities doesn't need to actualize those things or uses, they can visualize them in memory and then describe them (assuming they have language to do so - which is typically where formal education enhances existing abilities).
Try it yourself. First get the supplies though. You may find that you are creative with them in your hands but may struggle to come up with ideas in memory. Children are especially better at handson creativity and struggle with spacial abilities.
Some ideas.
Tools, toys, art, machines, instruments. Don't forget that sticks bend and can be broken. Also you could make a component of something more complex.
Re:Wow this is the best handwaving I've seen in a (Score:3, Interesting)
Schools are targeted for the middle of the bell curve -- they have to be! -- and even the gifted classes are targeted for the bell curve of the gifted students --- which
A. Creativity cannot be taught.
B. Talent is in the context of the time. It isn't fair, but it is true.
C. The educational system never knows how to detect --- let alone help --- talented young people. Welcome to the shark tank --- the game of top dog with no rules.
Short version: If you have talent ---> you have to develop further largely yourself, other people and the system don't even know HOW to help you.
Plus it ISN'T their fault --- talent is UNUSUAL and by definition this means nobody really knows how to feed your talent.
PROTIP: Take control yourself while listening, if you are special --- you are special in that others don't know best how to help because you are so awesome.
High on spatial here (Score:2, Interesting)
Now for the story. As a bad kid I was locked up. During that year I went though many psychological tests and IQ tests but it wasn't my first encounter with them. Having been labeled a smart kid (reading college level in grade school), I was somewhat of an outcast because A grades were so simple for me. I think it was simple really, I had read beyond the classes so the material was sometimes below me. I wasn't afraid to ask questions but I have had one lingering demon - math.
Something about the rote memorization bothered me, the lack of proof of how things worked. I dropped out of caring about it once they introduced imaginary numbers. Without understanding the formulas or using them, I have to come up with my own ways to make math work for myself. I could fake it well enough in trigonometry by memorizing the formulas and applying them but I swear to you I just can't put those into real world problems for the life of me but I can get an A on your final. Each time I've tried to read into algorithms I always get lost by the math symbols that aren't explained so I expect that in some ways this works for and against me. For me because I have to solve a problem with my own brain, against me because others won't see me doing it the way they were taught or how it's "supposed" to be done. I imagine that it takes me longer too since I'm reinventing the wheel. Where I get back time though is on visualizing a complex system before it exists and keep all the parts in my head. I'm good at figuring out where bottlenecks or potential problems will be. I think this helps me with making accurate time proposals and debugging the work of others. I've become the local 'goto' person in this company even for things I don't do daily. Eighty percent of the messages I get for work now are looking at something broken somewhere else. I could offer them that high spatial makes for a good debugger perhaps.
Back to the kiddie topic.
I was constantly watched and tested even in advanced classes. These classes gave me a social stigma I couldn't handle once I became a teen so I refused to go to school and rebelled intensely, after all, everyone around me was constantly saying I was smart. It was time to put down smart and work on my impossible social life because smart was under control. This led to a commitment to girl's school indefinitely for refusing completely to attend high school. In one door and out the other each and every day. Inside lockup their tests also quantified where my skills were and I can't forget how high my spatial ability came out. I kept the paperwork for it but the odd part was that the careers they suggested to me where nowhere near what I derive enjoyment from. They suggested judge, lawyer, and something medical. Only the lawyer sounded appealing because you could argue nonstop. None of them sounded to me like what I wanted, to turn the pictures in my head into reality. I can do that with programming. What I get out of programming is a desire to improve. When I want to feel creative lately I turn on 'Daft Punk - Technologic' to spin my juices. The song is fast and tech oriented, it goes through all the phases of usage and reminds me why speed matters to users and how products are lines away from being trash or replaced.
Those careers suggested seem very bound to rules to me. Had I listened to their assessments of my strengths I wouldn't be posting here or continued my reading in this direction. Especially if I had listened to the people who told me you NEED math skills to be involved with programming. Since I've had so many tests and been through intense counseling I don't think they know at all what makes people tick or at least they don't take enough factors into their decisions. What it all has really done though is make me aware of what I'm good at and what I'm not, that let me choose a path that suited myself.
'Bell Curve' has been debunked (Score:5, Interesting)
Hold on there cowboy...I got this far into your response...
Yeah see, the Bell Curve is not accepted in modern science [wikipedia.org], especially by people like Chomsky.
Even those who would disagree with Chomsky...drop whatever school or scientist you want, the idea is defunct.
It's important to also understand *why* because it's a good introduction to high level statistical analysis and how it can be weilded incorrectly.
A good analogy is to the work of Freud. Practically everyone knows Freud in some way as a famous Psychologist...anyone who has *studied* Psychology at virtually any level can tell you his basic theories, and they'll tell you, as I'm sure you know, that most of his theories have been debunked and now sit in the history's museum of archaic science.
Archaic but foundational to be sure.
The 'Bell Curve' is a concept not a scientific law or observed phenomenon. It was constructed using the language of statistics, but an idea or concept nonetheless. It became 'popular' because of its presentation and the general emergence of data analysis in daily life due to changes in technology.
Put your three claims to a similar level of rigor...you'll see easily that they are all logical fallacies:
Data and yes even test scores can tell a trained educator a lot. However...and if anything, take away this **one** truth from this post.....even the **best** data (and 'Bell Curve' is based on severely flawed methodology) is only as good as the person who is interpreting and reporting it.
Re:I tests like this were required I would be scre (Score:4, Interesting)
I looked at these tests and tried to figure it out for a bit but unless I actually cut those things out and folded them up there is just no way I could figure those things out.
Visualizing unfolded parts is a skill that improves with practice. Anybody who does sheet metal work sees such problems routinely. There are programs for this, such as eMachineShop or Autodesk Inventor. Rectangular sheet metal design is not that hard. Origami, though...
There's a higher level of visualization than this. I used to develop high-end animation software, so I met pro 3D animators. I've seen one draw a head by drawing a series of 2D cross sections freehand, then skinning it. I can use the 3D animation program, but I can't do that.
Sculptors have that skill, too. There's a classic line: "The story is told that the Pope visited Michelangelo in his studio one day, and on seeing him sculpting his statue of David, the Pope asked, "How do you know what to cut away?" The great artist's response was, "I simply chip away anything that doesn't look like David."'
That is not a joke. There are people whose 3D visualization is that good.
This may be inherited. I know a good artist whose drawings have hung in the Smithsonian. She has that kind of visualization ability. So do her son and daughter, although neither works as an artist.
Re:Wow this is the best handwaving I've seen in a (Score:4, Interesting)
Creativity can and is taught. I teach it all the time.
You can stand up and "teach" it, but is it learned?
I work with kids in after school programs ..... If you pair a dull kid up with a brighter kid, he will learn by example.
You are part of the problem - trying to normalise everyone. In the UK there has been a theory of socialist origin that everyone has exactly the same ability, but opportunities differ. So they abolished Grammar schools (which were selective) and put all kids in the same "comprehensive" schools with, like your theory, the idea that the [apparently] bright kids would pull the [apparently] slow kids up to the same high level. What has happened is that everyone has ended up mediocre. Goes a lot to explain why the UK has fallen from being world technical leader to just saying "wow" when they see a new gadget from Taiwan.
My son was exceptionally bright, so in a class of mixed abilities he got postioned into tutoring his slower fellow pupils (like in your classes), so for two years he learned nothing (except from me at home) and began to get dissillusioned with learning. That is not even to mention the distraction of the disruptive pupils, who tend to be the duller ones because it is the duller ones who are not interested in learning (cause/effect or effect/cause ?) so out of boredom they create havoc instead.