Components of Spatial Intelligence

This chapter identifies two basic components of spatial intelligence, based on analyses of performance on tests of spatial ability and on complex spatial thinking tasks in domains such as mechanics, chemistry, medicine, and meteorology. The first component is flexible strategy choice between mental imagery (or mental simulation more generally) and more analytic forms of thinking. Research reviewed here suggests that mental simulation is an important strategy in spatial thinking, but that it is augmented by more analytic strategies such as task decomposition and rule-based reasoning. The second is meta-representational competence [diSessa, A. A. (2004). Metarepresentation: Native competence and targets for instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 22, 293–331], which encompasses ability to choose the optimal external representation for a task and to use novel external representations productively. Research on this aspect of spatial intelligence reveals large individual differences in ability to adaptively choose and use external visual–spatial representations for a task. This research suggests that we should not just think of interactive external visualizations as ways of augmenting spatial intelligence, but also consider the types of intelligence that are required for their use. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Volume 52 # 2010 Elsevier Inc. ISSN 0079-7421, DOI: 10.1016/S0079-7421(10)52007-3 All rights reserved.