[hinckley buzzard]

Psychobabble.............

Nope. Real difference. Probably the cognitive basis for the predominance of males in engineering, for one thing. Simple every day experience for another: try giving directions to a woman by saying go east three miles and turn south on Route 21. They usually will stare at you blankly. You're better off telling them to go straight ahead to the corner with the BP station and then turn right at the light.

[nomorelurker]

Experienced the same thing in reverse this summer. Was driving and headed to a certain place in a Texas Rio Grande Valley city. The woman giving directions in the van could not state the directions as such and such street and intersection but could only say turn by the Wal-Mart sign and go to the day care center and turn again. My wife seems to be an exception she can tell you go up 2 blocks turn right at the next intersection etc. She still can't understand however when I ask will that be North, South, East or West. Of course I'm a typical guy and will not ask for directions “I know it's here somewhere”.

[Ciexyz]

hmm.

[driftless2]

"directions"

My two very liberal sisters used to give me directions to their homes in the suburbs of Chicago by using landmarks (go past O'Hare, turn right after such and such building, etc.) I looked at a map and figured out a way by following the streets and highways. By doing so I saved about thirty miles that it would have taken me by following my sister's instuctions. They were thoroughly shocked that I could get to a destination by reading a map.

[aruanan]

You're better off telling them to go straight ahead to the corner with the BP station and then turn right at the light.

This is no less spatial than the previous example using 3 miles. "3 miles" isn't an image that one holds in one's head. It's measured and detected by looking at the odometer; the same kind of looking involved when looking for the BP station. Spatial rotation is the ability to hold an image in the mind and turn it around while keeping all the points of that image in their constant relationship while looking at the whole from a different perspective. This is what is being tested for on those tests with the drawing of the stacked boxes and the choice of which of the four below is the same object.

[Madame Dufarge]

You're better off telling them to go straight ahead to the corner with the BP station and then turn right at the light.

True, for me anyway. I actually start to panic when someone gives me directions involving compass points.

And actually envisioning a finished house from a blueprint? I'm thinking Najavo code talkers.