[Blindmath] [Blind math] Spatial Abilities

Fri May 30 12:03:29 UTC 2014

I am not sure this is a blind thing.  When I was sighted back in the day we
used paper bags at the grocery.  I used to train baggers.  I would say it
was almost a 50 50 shot that the people I trained could look at what was on
the counter and be able to quickly and easily pack groceries in the least
amount of bags, taking into account shape, and type of groceries.  TI have
found over the years that the same people that couldn't pack a paper bag
correctly also couldn't look at a pile of luggage and figure out how to fit
it in the trunk without trying 15 times.  Now that I am blind and have been
for the last 20 years I haven't found it any harder.  I do have my previous
sighted experience and training but I have met as many blind people that
understand special areas as well as me.  As I have met that are totally
unable to walk through a building that they have worked in for over 2
years.  So in my experience and just in my humble opinion I think it has
more to do with how your experiences growing up allowed you to learn and
maybe how your brain is genetically wired than anything to do with site. 

It would be interesting to do a study with the old square paper bags and a
table full of stuff.  To see how different blind people could look over a
table of objects and be able to pack them verses a  group of sighted folks.

Ken 

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
Silverman via Blindmath
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 7:48 PM
To: sabra1023; Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Spatial Abilities

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
>>>>
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>
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