What is spatial reasoning and why is it important?
Spatial reasoning is the awareness of objects, the area or space they occupy, and their relative position to each other. In summary, it is the understanding of how objects can move and interact in a three-dimensional world.
Although it may sound like a strange concept, spatial reasoning contributes to our awareness of things in our environment. As a skill developed from childhood, it contributes to how individuals interact with everything around them. This includes:
• Reading and writing: Spatial reasoning helps individuals understand sentence structure and grammar.
• Mathematics: With concepts like geometry and numerical arrangement, it’s used to solve problems and use mathematical reasoning.
• Location: This skill helps people understand where things are located in relation to other things.
• Movement: Spatial reasoning enables us to comprehend how objects and people move through and navigate environments.
As a skill, spatial reasoning is a part of everyone’s life, but more advanced use of the skill is common in jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), as well as some creative roles like graphic design and photography. Let’s look at its role in the workplace.
Spatial reasoning in the workplace
In many jobs, spatial reasoning is crucial for problem-solving, analytical thinking, and information processing. People who excel at this skill can spot patterns and relationships between objects, which in turn help them perform their tasks. Some examples are:
• Architecture: An architect should understand how parts of a structure they have designed will interact when they are put together.
• Mechanical engineering: An engineer needs to visualize how machine parts will work together before the parts are made.
• Surgery: A surgeon needs to understand how medical tools will affect each other, as well as their patients’ tissue, before they operate.
If this skill is crucial to any role in your organization, how do you make sure you recruit the best candidate for the job? A spatial-reasoning test may be the solution. Let’s explain.