[Blindmath] Spatial Abilities

[Susan Jolly via Blindmath]

There have been a large number of conferences about and studies of the use 
of tactile maps and diagrams by blind persons.  This has been going on for 
more than 40 years.  What I got out of reading many of the studies is that 
different people are different.

There is, however, a lot of evidence that men have better spatial abilities 
than women.  I know this is controversial but I think there is some truth to 
it.  I can see the sun come up east of my house and go down west of my 
house.  Nonetheless, no matter how hard I try, I cannot imagine that my son 
who lives 1000 miles west of me lives in the direction where the sun goes 
down.  I know that it is true logically but when I think about him, he's 
always somewhere off to the east in my mind.

As for graphs, it took me years to understand why it is not necessary when 
laying out a two-dimensional graph to use the same spacing for both axes.  I 
mention this here for two reasons.  First, it is an example of different 
people being different.  Second, it points out that the shape of a graph is 
to some extent arbitrary.  Of course, the general shape is independent of 
the exact choice of layout. (I'm talking about linear axes; you can 
dramatically change the shape if you use non-linear axes such as logarithmic 
ones.)

SusanJ