Visual / Spatial
Howard Gardner refers to spatial intelligence as “capacities to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to perform transformations on one’s initial perceptions.”
Research has found that gender differences in spatial abilities do exist, and can be observed as early as infancy, and that unverified perceptions of gender differences abound as well.
- Gender differences in spatial abilities appear as early as five months, according to a 2010 study by David Moore and Scott Johnson. The study demonstrated that male infants, not female infants, discriminated between 3-D unrotated and rotated objects.
- A 2011 study found that self-perceptions of spatial intelligence varied by gender as well. Males reported higher self-estimates of spatial intelligence than their female counterparts.
- These perceptions affect parents as well. Parents’ estimates of their first-born child’s intelligence rated boys as having higher levels of mathematical and spatial intelligence than girls.
- One study also found links between spatial abilities and critical thinking skills.
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