Abstract
The architectural design process requires high levels of spatial ability. A battery of spatial ability tests specifically for architects is currently being developed by a team of educational psychologists and architectural scholars. The present study uses these test materials to investigate how gestures support architects’ mental spatial visualization. We conducted laboratory experiments to test two types of spatial visualization: mental cutting and mental transformation. We examined three aspects of the cognitive role of architects’ gestures in spatial visualization: (1) the beneficial effects of gestures on spatial visualization test performance, (2) the relations between gesture frequency and task difficulty, and (3) the relations between gesture frequency and the type of mental imagery. Our data analysis results did not support the general hypothesis that architects’ spontaneous gestures have a beneficial effect on spatial visualization test performance. However, there are noteworthy differences in the results when we look separately into the data from the two different task types, mental cutting and mental transformation. Most importantly, the frequency of gestures is significantly higher in the task that requires spatial imagery. This result could be explained by understanding the types of imagery underlying mental activities in solving the two tasks. We assume that spatial imagery involves more motor simulation compared to object imagery, and that this was reflected in the significant difference in the gesture frequencies observed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baddeley, A.D.: Working Memory. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1986)
Berkowitz, M., Stern, E.: Which cognitive abilities make the difference? Predicting academic achievements in advanced STEM studies. J. Intell. 6(4), 48 (2018)
Blajenkova, O., Kozhevnikov, M., Motes, M.A.: Object-spatial imagery: a new self-report imagery questionnaire. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 20(2), 239–263 (2006)
Carlson, R.A., Avraamides, M.N., Cary, M., Strasberg, S.: What do the hands externalize in simple arithmetic? J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 33(4), 747–756 (2007)
Carroll, J.B.: Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York (1993)
Cartmill, E.A., Beilock, S.L., Goldin-Meadow, S.: A word in the hand: human gesture links representations to actions. Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. B 367, 129–143 (2012)
Cash, P., Maier, A.: Prototyping with your hands: the many roles of gesture in the communication of design concepts. J. Eng. Des. 27(1–3), 118–145 (2016)
CEEB: Special Aptitude Test in Spatial Relations. USA (1939)
Chu, M., Kita, S.: Spontaneous gestures during mental rotation tasks: insights into the micro development of the motor strategy. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 137, 706–723 (2008)
Chu, M., Kita, S.: The nature of gestures’ beneficial role in spatial problem solving. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 140, 102–116 (2011)
Cohen, J.: Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Routledge Academic, New York (1988)
Farah, M.J., Hammond, K.M., Levine, D.N., Calvanio, R.: Visual and spatial mental imagery: dissociable systems of representations. Cogn. Psychol. 20, 439–462 (1988)
Gerber, A., Berkowitz, M., Emo, B., Kurath, S., Hölscher, C., Stern, E.: Does space matter? A cross-disciplinary investigation upon spatial abilities of architects. In: Leopold, C., Robeller, C., Weber, U. (eds.) Research Culture in Architecture. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel (2019)
Goldin-Meadow, S., Beilock, S.L.: Action’s influence on thought: the case of gesture. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 5, 664–674 (2010)
Grüter, T., Grüter, M., Bell, V., Carbon, C.C.: Visual mental imagery in congenital prosopagnosia. Neurosci. Lett. 453, 135–140 (2009)
Hegarty, M., Kozhevnikov, M.: Types of visual-spatial representations and mathematical problem solving. J. Educ. Psychol. 91, 684–689 (1999)
Hegarty, M., Mayer, S., Kriz, S., Keehner, M.: The role of gestures in mental animation. Spat. Cogn. Comput. 5(4), 333–356 (2005)
Heuer, F., Fischman, D., Reisberg, D.: Why does vivid imagery hurt colour memory? Can. J. Psychol. 40, 161–175 (1986)
Hostetter, A.B., Alibali, M.W.: Gesture as simulated action: revisiting the framework. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 26(3), 721–752 (2019)
Hostetter, A.B., Alibali, M.W.: Visible embodiment: gestures as simulated action. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 15(3), 495–514 (2008)
Humphreys, L.G., Lubinski, D., Yao, G.: Utility of predicting group membership and the role of spatial visualization in becoming an engineer, physical scientist, or artist. J. Appl. Psychol. 78(2), 250 (1993)
Kang, S., Tversky, B., Black, J.B.: From hands to minds: how gestures promote action understanding. In: Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, pp. 551–557. Cognitive Science Society, Austin (2012)
Kang, S., Tversky, B., Black, J.: Coordinating gesture, word, and diagram: explanations for experts and novices. Spat. Cogn. Comput. 15, 1–26 (2015)
Logie, R.H.: Visuo-Spatial Working Memory. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hove (1995)
Lohman, D.F.: Spatial Ability: A Review and Reanalysis of the Correlational Literature. (Technical Report No. 8). Aptitude Research Project, School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford (1979)
McGee, M.G.: Human spatial abilities: psychometric studies and environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological influences. Psychol. Bull. 86(5), 889–918 (1995)
Newcombe, N., Shipley, T.: Thinking about spatial thinking: new typology, new assessments. In: Gero, J. (ed.) Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity, pp. 179–192. Springer, Dordrecht (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9297-4_10
Pallasmaa, J.: The Thinking Hand Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. Wiley, Chichester (2009)
Shipley, T., Tikoff, B., Ormand, C., Manduca, C.: Structural geology practice and learning, from the perspective of cognitive science. J. Struct. Geol. 54, 72–84 (2013)
Sorby, S.A.: Developing 3-D spatial visualization skills. Eng. Des. Graph. J. 63, 21–32 (1999)
Stieff, M., Lira, M.E., Scopelitis, S.A.: Gesture supports spatial thinking in STEM. Cogn. Instr. 34(2), 80–99 (2016)
Tversky, B., Jamalian, A., Giardino, V., Kang, S., Kessell, A.: Comparing gestures and diagrams. In: 10th International Gesture Workshop, Tilburg, Netherlands (2013)
Uttal, D.H., Cheryl, A.C.: Spatial thinking and STEM education: when, why and how. In: Psychology of Learning and Motivation, vol. 57, pp. 147–181 (2012)
Visser, W.: The function of gesture in an architectural design meeting (chap. 15). In: McDonnell, J., Lloyd, P., Luck, R., Reid, F., Cross, N. (eds.) Designing Analysing Design Meetings, pp. 269–284. Taylor & Francis, London (2009)
Acknowledgment
The research was partly conducted at the Future Cities Laboratory at the Singapore-ETH Centre, which was established collaboratively between ETH Zurich and Singapore’s National Research Foundation (FI 370074016) under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise programme. Yesol Park is funded by the DComm grant (EU H2020 ITN Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions; grant agreement 676063).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Park, Y., Brösamle, M., Hölscher, C. (2020). The Function of Gesture in Architectural-Design-Related Spatial Ability. In: Šķilters, J., Newcombe, N., Uttal, D. (eds) Spatial Cognition XII. Spatial Cognition 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12162. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57983-8_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57983-8_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57982-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57983-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)