An investigation of 2D and 3D spatial and mathematical abilities

Product design involves many dimensions, requiring designers to work with different types of representations. The power of different representations varies not only according to the types of representation but their power also varies from person to person. Some important design representations, including spatial and mathematical, were investigated in this study. Four different puzzles in mathematical and spatial problem domains were employed to investigate the correlation between mathematical and spatial abilities. It was found that mathematical and spatial abilities were independent, while performance on 2D and 3D spatial tasks were consistently correlated. Some people seemed to demonstrate low spatial aptitude because they were biased by the representation and adopted more difficult strategies.