Developing 3-D Spatial Visualization Skills

By S. Sorby. Engineering Design Graphics Journal, 2009

335 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The development or improvement of 3-D spatial visualization skills is often cited as one of the major goals of engineering design graphics education.  Historically, improvements in spatial skills were achieved as a by-product of a graphics education that often included several semesters of instruction in manual drafting technique.  As the engineering curriculum evolved through time, traditional graphics instruction was "squeezed" from two directions simultaneously.  First and foremost, engineering programs were required to reduce the total number of credits to graduation, often resulting in fewer credits available for graphics instruction.  Second, pressure was exerted on graphics educators to include additional topics such as CAD, design, and creativity in their introductory courses.  Instruction in manual drafting technique was greatly reduced or eliminated altogether in favor of sketching and/or computer applications.  Throughout this evolutionary process, the objectives of graphics education have changed accordingly.  Increased emphasis has been placed on the development of 3-D spatial skills in these courses, however, many graphics educators, who themselves typically have highly developed skills, have had no formal training in understanding spatial skills or how they are effectively developed.  This paper will attempt to answer several questions regarding background information on research in spatial skills and will describe those strategies that graphics educators can adopt to develop these skills in their students.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Geography, Planning and Development

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/14095304e057bbf4c3c66abb0f4cbc715eca21fb

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Automotive Engineering

1. Tracy Logan
2. Thomas Lowrie
3. Mary Hegarty
4. A. Ramful
5. Alice A. Black
6. Nizar Abdelkafi
7. Karl Täuscher

In Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

1. Thomas Lowrie
2. Tracy Logan
3. A. Ramful
4. Mary Hegarty
5. Alice A. Black
6. Nizar Abdelkafi
7. Karl Täuscher

In Geography, Planning and Development

1. Thomas Lowrie
2. Tracy Logan
3. Mary Hegarty
4. A. Ramful
5. Alice A. Black

Citations in the corpus

• A Heuristic Framework of Spatial Ability: a Review and Synthesis of Spatial Factor Literature to Support its Translation into STEM Education (2018, neutral): “However, Sorby (1999) uses the term spatial ability for when specific training has occurred and spatial skills when it is innate.”
• Spatial Ability and Earth Science Conceptual Understanding (2005, methodology): “The test is also called the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test - Visualization of Rotations (Branoff, 1998) and Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (Sorby and Baartmans, 1996; Sorby, 1999) in engineering graphics literature, abbreviated as PSVT:R (Sorby and Baartmans; Sorby) or as PSVT (Bran”
• The Influence of Spatial Visualization Training on Students’ Spatial Reasoning and Mathematics Performance (2019, background): “Types of training include instructional courses targeting a range of spatial skills (e.g., Sorby, 1999), video-game playing (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007; Sanchez, 2012), and practicing of specific spatial skills, often in the context of a psychology laboratory (e.g., Wright, Thompson, Ganis,…”
• Measurement of Spatial Ability: Construction and Validation of the Spatial Reasoning Instrument for Middle School Students (2017, background): “In fact, a number of researchers (Linn & Petersen, 1985; McGee, 1979; Sorby, 2009) include mental rotation as a type of spatial visualization.”