Our spatial abilities

[Sammy]

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[anya921]

I never knew I suck so badly at rotating 3D objects in my mind. I mean, I can imagine some things moving and rotating in my mind... simple things like balls, squares or balls with squares withing, but in those online tests... just looking at those complex figures makes my brain freeze and I can only stare at them. I also found out that I am not the only one rotating and re-aligning a map with my location...
So, I was wondering, if you have this thingie too?

I am also aligning rotating and realigning a map to make sense out of where I am lol, But rotating 3D objects in my mind. piece of cake.  I think I read somewhere its the side of the brain used mostly by males is responsible for that though I am not sure about it. But who cares, I am good at it and I am proud of it. There are so many great women designers, architects and inventors who have the same ability.

If you are the same, then welcome to the club ladies. 

[Nicolette]

My dad is so bad at this ability, it sometimes prevents him doing some simple everyday tasks. He never had a formal eduction, he never went to such a thing called a school. So that may be part of the reason. I have always read that playing with bricks and mechanical toys when you're young aids the development of the brain in this regard. I think I once did some of those tests and scored highly. Rotating objects in your mind is one very useful skill in the toolbox of problem solving.

[Nicolette]

Well, when I was child I played a lot with some sort of  Lego equivalent - I literally spent hours building all kinds of houses and such. I still suck at those tests and I have two Master's degrees in social sciences It appears that Chinese language is easier than reading a map...

The only explanation then is that you're making things up, not. More practice?

[anya921]

well I will always prefer a map over Chinese language lol. For me understanding graphics is much much easier than understanding foreign language. 

[anya921]

Well visualizing and understanding 3D spaces and objects have nothing to do with GID. Even some Architects, both male and female have trouble with this.

[Anna++]

I generally don't have a problem rotating things around in my mind (I've been playing with legos for years and years).  I've always assumed that I'm generally better at the typical male abilities because my body (and therefore brain) is chemically-male.

[ZoeM]

I think my history of game programming (Sue me, I'm a geek) has helped with my spatial abilities.
When I first started, the whole system was confusing (gimbal lock stymied me for months); after eight or so years, though, I can visualize almost anything I want - from any angle. Once I annoyed my then-girlfriend because the 3d scene I was working on was rotated at an odd angle and she couldn't understand it. :|
On the other hand, okcupid and some site I've never heard of both say my brain is 67% female, so there.

[anya921]

Well I do it day to day basis lol. I am an Architect, so its my job to visualize things on my mind before putting it on paper.  and yes I have taken those online tests and most of the time I manage to get them all correct. once you get used to create entire spaces and buildings on your mind, rotating thing will be sooooo easy.   

So Chinese, No thanks please, I will stick to rotating things in my mind. 

[anya921]

On the other hand, okcupid and some site I've never heard of both say my brain is 67% female, so there.

Just took the test and my brain is 62 % feminine and 38 % masculine!

[Sara Thomas]

I do a considerable amount of carpentry and home-spun engineering, and "build" everything in my head - about the only time that I put anything on paper is to illustrate to another person what I'm picturing, or if I'm concerned that something might lack grace and wish to see it rendered... or for side-by-side comparisons of ideas.

[suzifrommd]

I have a pretty high IQ, find math easy and am pretty quick solving logic problems.

But I can't do that kind of spatial reasoning to save my life.

I'm really good at following maps, but I have to hold the map so that it's facing the direction I really am facing or I'll never know which way to turn.

[Anna++]

The problem I have with the online tests is that it's easy to force a result if you know the types of questions they ask.  I've caught myself doing this on more than one occasion...

[Jennygirl]

Spatial 3D visualizing is my specialty! I do 3D animation and motion graphics for a living now, but I was a "legomaniac" as a child and thought one day I would become a mechanical engineer. I've always had a knack for that kind of stuff, but I don't see how it could be related to gender at all. I'm one of the girliest girls I know at the moment

[muuu]

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[A]

I haven't done an online test, but when we did such exercises at school, I managed to do sort of well, though not easily. To do such things, I always need to  make gestures, imagine a lot, speak to myself out loud, etc.

I guess being okay but having trouble makes me average.

Though still about spatial stuff, I SUCK at orientation. Back when I still drove, I sometimes got lost in my hometown which I have seldom left. And a few months ago, I got lost WALKING just a few Km. With a map.

[Nero]

I'm not good at suff like this. Doubt childhood hobbies has anything to do with it as pretty much all I did was play with Legos. I'm ok with maps, but horrible if someone tries to explain directions to me. I just figure my brain's missing some vital male stuff.

[Veronica]

I don't want to be a Debbie downer to this thread but: http://www.tsroadmap.com/mental/gendertests.html

My g/f says I have an androgyny's personality, which I took offense to on several levels, but I'm not going to get into that here.

Anyways my opinion is you can't stereotype these "typical gender traits" to male/female. Just like handwriting, some people are better than others at things regardless of "sex."

[Carrie Liz]

I'm probably the oddball in this group. I've always had exceptional spatial abilities, scoring in the top 5% of every test that I've ever taken. And thus far, feminizing hormones have had pretty much no effect on them whatsoever. We'll see if that changes as I go further.

Honestly though, even though I am good at spacial tasks and mathematical reasoning and a bunch of other typically-male things, there has never been any doubt in my mind that this in any way interfered with my gender identity. Because my social interactions are VERY unmistakably feminine. And despite scoring a -10 on every single question of the COGIATI that dealt with math or spacial reasoning, and lost even more points because I'm terrible at remembering names and faces, somehow I still got a 165 on it because of my social tendencies. And frankly, during those high school math competitions, I always saw myself as the girl who was kicking butt and taking names and showing the boys how it was done, even though I technically wasn't. That really is my identity, and being very good at a typically-male task certainly doesn't make me feel like any less of a girl now.

[A]

I don't want to be a Debbie downer to this thread but: http://www.tsroadmap.com/mental/gendertests.html

My g/f says I have an androgyny's personality, which I took offense to on several levels, but I'm not going to get into that here.

Anyways my opinion is you can't stereotype these "typical gender traits" to male/female. Just like handwriting, some people are better than others at things regardless of "sex."

Personality traits and skills are indeed gendered; a lot of them are, at least. But gender identity and how feminine or masculine one's personality or skills are has nothing (or very little) to do with gender identity. If it did, then all effeminate guys and tomboy girls would be trans.

I prefer to say that it's okay to be more effeminate or more masculine regardless of the gender you feel you are deep inside than that nothing is gendered. The latter feels like it's denying reality. I think if more people thought like the first statement, it would be better for people who get bullied.

Rather than selecting things that are gendered and others that aren't, only bringing the bullying to a smaller number of traits which are "still girly", I think it would be better if people stopped caring about what's girly or guyish and just accepted that there are girly boys and boyish girls, and that's okay.

This whole post feels utterly useless.