See my post about aptitude bias. Not all excellent spellers can do well in a spelling bee. Not only do you have to spell well, but you don't get the advantage of the visual cues that come with spelling the words IN WRITING. You have to either have the aptitude that allows you to visualize the word in your head, or the aptitude that allows you to memorize huge lists of word without the visual-conversion aptitude. In other wirds, spelling bees are not so much tests of the ability to spell as much as they are visualization-aptitude tests.
Dr. Johnson O'Connor was one of the modern pioneers in the development of Aptitude Testing, having been hired by GE in Boston many decades ago to find out why so many workers GE hired left the jobs they had. O'Connor was one of the first to exposit the idea that many seemingly unrelated aptitudes can predispose one to success in differing areas of pursuit. For instance, the aptitude of Pitch Discrimination had obvious benefit to musicians and singers. But O'Connor also found that those who scored very high in Pitch Discrimination also excelled at doing all kinds of close-tolerance work, such as jewelers, high-end machinists, and artists. To O'Connor, Pitch Discrimination is simply the MANNER in which one measures a person's ability to pursue very finely detail work.
Dr. O'Connor was also the first to isolate and test for Structural Visualization - in fact, he wrote more than one book on the aptitude. SV is the aptitude that allows a person to visualize, say, the design of a building or a room before one nail has ever been driven. Engineers and architects obviously have the aptitude, but so do those who are excellent at organization.They "visualize" in their heads how things are supposed to be laid out. Top military strategists also are strong in this aptitude.
Those lacking in Structural Visualization are conversly high in Abstract Visualization, which would be helpful to those, for example, in a Spelling Bee. In the general population, about 70% of people are high in Abstract Visualization, leaving only 30% high in Structural. Which is why the general population seems genuinely baffled by someone who can come into a situation and instantly visualize a solution to whatever problemos he sees. The guy who can do this is high in Structural Visualization.
Just a few notes for those of you who were craving a bit of aptitude exposition with your morning coffee.
Michael