[Blindmath] Spatial Abilities

[David Andrews via Blindmath]

Arielle, I think spacial sense is not necessarily blindness 
related.  I am a pretty good judge of space -- packing a truck 
wouldn't be a problem for me.  I can walk around a new room, and have 
a very good idea if my furniture will fit, and where best to put each piece.

When I moved into my house, with my kids I arranged their 
rooms.  They were pretty little.  As they grew they wanted to take 
matters into their own hands, and moved everything (into terrible 
positions I must point out,)  Piece by piece, the furniture has gone 
back to where I put it initially.  I forgot to say I am totally blind.

Dave

At 06:48 PM 5/28/2014, you wrote:
>This is a really interesting question. I have been blind since birth
>and have always had excellent verbal and quantitative skills, and
>reasonable grasp of cardinal directions, but my spatial sense is very
>poor. For example, when moving furniture or packing a moving truck, I
>have no idea how things should be arranged. I feel I am at a
>disadvantage because I can only touch or explore a large space a
>little at a time, whereas a sighted person can see the whole thing at
>once. This is a bit of a different problem from the 2 vs.
>3-dimensional issue (although I also have trouble decoding raised
>diagrams especially those with complex shapes). I can mental-map a
>space easily if it's a standard square or rectangular block, but have
>a lot of trouble mental-mapping a room or building that's irregularly
>shaped in any way. I have met several blind people who don't have the
>same degree of difficulty as I do, however, so I am hesitant to blame
>it wholly on blindness. That's why I am curious to hear what other
>congenitally blind people experience. I do think growing up I was
>never expected to engage spatially with the world and I wasn't as
>tactually inquisitive as some blind kids, so my spatial development
>might have been hampered. For me there's little connection between
>mathematical relationships between numbers and their graphical
>analogs, which is why my math ability doesn't suffer from my spatial
>impairment.
>
>Arielle
>
>On 5/28/14, sabra1023 via Blindmath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> > Just because someone uses three-dimensional objects doesn't mean that they
> > have a low spatial intelligence necessarily. I believe that for spatial IQ
> > tests for the blind, it is best practice to use three-dimensional objects.
> >
> >> On May 28, 2014, at 1:13 PM, Amanda Lacy <lacy925 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I think it has to do with the fact that those of us who are blind from
> >> birth don't experience the world as being flat. Sight involves the
> >> projection of light onto a flat retina, so for sighted people it seems
> >> natural to go from there to representing real things on flat surfaces.
> >> Flat pictures are everywhere for them since birth, but I can't think of
> >> one single example of anything in the real world that's flat. Our hands
> >> are designed to grasp and rotate and examine real objects, and then we
> >> come to school and have to learn what seems like a new language. So when
> >> people say that my hands are like their eyes, I have to disagree. I'm
> >> speculating as someone who has never been sighted, so any of you can feel
> >> free to correct me with more accurate information.
> >>
> >> Amanda
> >>> On 5/28/2014 12:46 PM, sabra1023 via Blindmath wrote:
> >>> I wonder if being blind from birth has to do with it. If I'm remembering
> >>> how to get somewhere, I just imagine myself walking there. A map doesn't
> >>> help. I can imagine three-dimensional things very well and make them out
> >>> of clay. Also, I can remember a two dimensional shape like a circle or
> >>> square. However, it's difficult for me to imagine and manipulate graphs
> >>> in my head.
> >>>
> >>>> On May 28, 2014, at 12:07 PM, Susan Jolly via Blindmath
> >>>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> 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