While preparing the last of my series of cognitive ability
presentations (which will be about visual spatial processing), I
read the
following readable paper:
Spatial versus object visualizers: a new characterization of visual cognitive
style. Kozhevnikov, M., Kosslyn, S., and
Shepard, J. Memory and Cognition 2005,
33(4), 710-726.
Cognitive style refers to the consistency with which a person
acquires and processes information. Examples
of cognitive styles would be field dependence/independence, reflectiveness/
impulsivity and visualizers /
verbalizers. The paper claims that while
performing cognitive tasks, visualizers rely more on visual images while
verbalizers rely more on analytic strategies.
Krutetzkii suggested that people can be classified according
to the way they process mathematical information. People with an analytic style prefer to solve
math problems in logical and verbal ways.
People who have a "geometric" style prefer to use visual
imagery.
It's not clear to me whether this classification between
verbalizers and visualizers is sufficiently supported by research.
The paper divides the visualizers into two subgroups:
visualizers who are good at
processing spatial relations and
visualizers who are good at processing object
features. The former will find
their way to a destination by creating a mental map. The latter will find their way by visualizing
prominent objects that will function as milestones along the
way.
This division is supported by neuropsychological findings.
Different brain areas are activated while
people visualize, for instance, a route on a map they had studied previously (a
task which activates parietal areas) and objects, faces or colors (a task which
activates temporal areas).
Some elementary school children use spatial schematic representations to solve math
problems, while others use
pictorial
object representations. Children
using spatial schematic representations do better on these problems.
The article claims that visualizers who are good at
processing spatial relations
have a high spatial ability. These people
tend to decode and process stimuli analytically, part by part, to create
abstract schematic images and to use spatial relations to analyze the stimuli
features. They are able to image spatial
transformations of the objects in space (like in mental rotation tasks).
Visualizers who are good at processing object features have a
poorer spatial ability. They tend to
process visual information globally, as a single perceptual unit, and to form
static images (for example of a scenery or objects) that are very vivid and detailed. These people will succeed at tasks requiring
object recognition, memory and gestalt closure, and will be better painters.
The paper tries to verify these hypotheses by a series of
pictorial studies (which I will not describe here).
The paper has an interesting appendix with items from a
visualizer
– verbalizer questionnaire. The items
are math problems which can be solved through a visual representation (schematic
or pictorial) or through verbalizing. After
solving the problems, the child/person is asked what way or ways he used (a
formula, visual imagery of the objects in the problem, a diagram and so
forth). The child can add other ways he
used.
Perhaps if we'll help children find the cognitive style they
use to cope with math or other problems (verbalizing, spatial visualizing or
pictorial visualizing), they'll be able to use this insight as a strategy that
will help them solve such problems in the ways that will be the most effective
for them.
