Abstract
To design and draw in the field of architecture, it is necessary to have the ability to visualize and manipulate the architectural objects and spaces mentally. It means to have developed the spatial skills. In addition to this need, spatial skills are considered a determining factor for the permanence or abandonment of university degrees in architecture and engineering. The aim of this research was to analyze the improvement of spatial skills in freshmen architecture students by training them in life-size sketching of architectural spaces in virtual immersive environments using head mounted displays with haptic controls. For this study, the instruments that were chosen to measure three components of spatial skills were the mental rotation test to measure mental rotation, the differential aptitude test to measure spatial visualization and the perspective taking/spatial orientation test to measure spatial orientation. The Shapiro–Wilk Test was used to verify the normality of the sample, and the Student’s t-test was used for the comparison of the paired data. Before the training, there was no significant difference between experimental and control groups in three components, and after the training, there was a significant difference in the improvement of mental rotation, visualization, and orientation in the experimental group. The short and specific training designed has achieved its goal.
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Thanks to the students of the Universidad de La Laguna of Tenerife (Spain).
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Gomez-Tone, H.C., Martin-Gutierrez, J., Valencia-Anci, B.K. (2022). Spatial Skills Training Through Drawing Architectural Spaces Inside Immersive Virtual Reality. In: Mesquita, A., Abreu, A., Carvalho, J.V. (eds) Perspectives and Trends in Education and Technology. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 256. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5063-5_31
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