OT-Spatial reasoning

[Chuck Wintle]

This may be way off topic but I was spurred by some recent observations at the grocery store to make this post. I was wondering who comes by this ability more naturally...men or women.
Moderators...delete topic of too controversial.

thx,
chuck

[Jim Koepke]

Must be women because I am not really quite sure what you are talking about.

However, if you mean being able to look at things and knowing how much space it will take for them to fit into, that may come naturally equally to both men and women.

I have known men and women who can do it. Both of my parents were good at this and so am I. Not sure if that means it is genetic or if I just learned it from them.

My folks had a furniture and appliance store and it was often necessary to pack a pick-up truck for deliveries. It is amazing how much can be fit into a well packed truck bed.

Reading the OP for a second time makes me think back to the early days of my youth. Back then, kids worked in grocery stores as baggers. They were taught how to get the most in each bag without flattening the bread or squashing the produce. I am not sure if they still do that kind of training, but watching a few checkers bagging groceries tells me some have it and some don't.

jtk

[Jamie Buxton]

... naturally...

It's really tough to figure out who has anything "naturally". Humans learn a great deal of who we are from the culture around us. It is darn difficult to separate all that learned behaviour from what we might have "naturally".

[Chuck Wintle]

It's really tough to figure out who has anything "naturally". Humans learn a great deal of who we are from the culture around us. It is darn difficult to separate all that learned behaviour from what we might have "naturally".

that is so true!

[Dan Hintz]

I was wondering who comes by this ability more naturally...men or women.

Women.

At least that's what we were taught in drafting class back in high school (and all further research I've seen has held up that assertion). Of course, the question has become is it nature or nurture. A few studies have been done that show this may not hold true in other cultures as they treat their children differently (nurture). I don't really have an opinion one way or the other as to the cause, but my experience has been women are sharper at it.

[Jim Rimmer]

Women.

At least that's what we were taught in drafting class back in high school (and all further research I've seen has held up that assertion). Of course, the question has become is it nature or nurture. A few studies have been done that show this may not hold true in other cultures as they treat their children differently (nurture). I don't really have an opinion one way or the other as to the cause, but my experience has been women are sharper at it.

I'm not quite sure what you are referring to as spatial reasoning. However, when I taught drafting in middle school and high school I found that boys grasped the concept at an earlier age than girls. Back in those days we taught orthographic projection and many of the girls just couldn't get it.

[Belinda Barfield]

If the discussion is which sex has a better grasp of how many of which object can fit in a space . . . have you ever looked inside a woman's purse? Or her luggage? LOL. I can pack a moving truck, my SO can't. When we worked with cultured marble either of us could order the kit for a shower surround, no matter the configuration, which requires you to be able to build the surround in your mind.

[Chuck Wintle]

If the discussion is which sex has a better grasp of how many of which object can fit in a space . . . have you ever looked inside a woman's purse? Or her luggage? LOL. I can pack a moving truck, my SO can't. When we worked with cultured marble either of us could order the kit for a shower surround, no matter the configuration, which requires you to be able to build the surround in your mind.

I was reading further today and the the proper designation is visual thinking which involves the right brain. Neither sex is better or worse it seems.

[Greg Portland]

This may be way off topic but I was spurred by some recent observations at the grocery store to make this post. I was wondering who comes by this ability more naturally...men or women.
Moderators...delete topic of too controversial.

thx,
chuck

It's a learned skill, just like following a map.

[Belinda Barfield]

It's a learned skill, just like following a map.

And here's where I fall off the cliff. I can read and follow a map. The navigation system map in my car, however, completely confuses me. When I make a turn, etc., I wish the map would reorient and not the icon for the car on the map. Sometimes it appears I'm going in the opposite direction (if that makes any sense) and I get totally confused.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

If the discussion is which sex has a better grasp of how many of which object can fit in a space . . . have you ever looked inside a woman's purse? Or her luggage? LOL. I can pack a moving truck, my SO can't. When we worked with cultured marble either of us could order the kit for a shower surround, no matter the configuration, which requires you to be able to build the surround in your mind.

No offense Belinda, but putting "woman's purse", "luggage", and "moving truck" in the same sentence........all I can say is that when we travel, my wife *needs* a moving truck - and I'm sure she would pack it most efficiently - but I usually get by with just a small carry-on bag

[Belinda Barfield]

No offense Belinda, but putting "woman's purse", "luggage", and "moving truck" in the same sentence........all I can say is that when we travel, my wife *needs* a moving truck - and I'm sure she would pack it most efficiently - but I usually get by with just a small carry-on bag

John, note that purse, luggage, and moving truck aren't all in the same sentence . . .

My mother is hopeless at packing a moving truck, I inherited that skill from my dad. As for travel, well, there have been times I needed a moving truck but those were times when I had no idea what I was packing for - if that makes any sense. Give me an idea of what I'm doing on a weekend trip and I can get it down to a backpack in most cases when necessary. If there is a formal event I have to go with a little larger bag.

[Dan Hintz]

And here's where I fall off the cliff. I can read and follow a map. The navigation system map in my car, however, completely confuses me. When I make a turn, etc., I wish the map would reorient and not the icon for the car on the map. Sometimes it appears I'm going in the opposite direction (if that makes any sense) and I get totally confused.

Most GPSs will allow you to select their orientation mode... like you, I prefer the car hood to always point towards the top of the GPS. My father prefers North to always point up (like you have it now). Do a little digging in the menus... sometimes it's as simple as tapping the compass rose in the corner of the map.

[glenn bradley]

I'm sure we have all met someone who has trouble visualizing physical things in their mind. If you told someone to picture a chair, then a lamp to one side of the chair, then a magazine rack to the other side of the chair. Add to that picture a dog sleeping on the floor in front of the magazine rack and a leash coiled on the floor in front of the lamp. Now ask the person what the physical relationship of the leash to the dog is. People who can visualize will tell you that the leash is to the left of, or to the right of the dog; depending on their original visualization positions. People who have trouble visualizing will have lost you at the introduction of the magazine rack. It is even more challenging for some folks if you don't use common objects. Instead of a chair it is an 'X', instead of a lamp it is a 'Y' and so forth. Similar to tests where you are shown a 2D drawing of a 3D object and then asked to select it from a group where it is placed in an alternate position/axis among similar but not identical objects. Some folks find this painfully easy while others cannot find the object at all. One is not more or less intelligent than the other necessarily. They just think differently. Some folks find Waldo right away and others don't see him at all ;-)

[Larry Browning]

This may be way off topic but I was spurred by some recent observations at the grocery store to make this post. I was wondering who comes by this ability more naturally...men or women.
Moderators...delete topic of too controversial.

thx,
chuck

I am curious as to what particular observation at the grocery store "spurred" this question in the first place?