When I was an undergraduate a long time ago, it was the well-established habit of third and fourth year psychology students to pounce on unsuspecting innocents like myself and subject us to a battery of psychology tests, none of which we got paid for (just catch any of this happening these days!). However, the test measuring verbal versus spatial ability and scored on a percentile ranking, has been of revelatory value to me for my whole life since then.
Why? Because the researcher confirmed my dawning suspicion that I was never designed to be a homing pigeon, and gave me a lifelong excuse (explanation? Take your pick….) for getting myself lost at the drop of a map. He found that my verbal ability was above the 95th percentile, and exceptionally high. ( See! Born to be a writer….) HOWEVER, my spatial ability was exceptionally low: below the 5th percentile. I can still remember the baffled look on the budding psychologist’s face as he read off my results. “How on EARTH do you manage to get about?” he enquired, in a voice carrying equal measures of pity and incredulity. And, dear reader, I have been pondering that question ever since.
So I just loved this post….
Getting Found by Getting Lost
200 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2013
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
I did enjoy the piece, although that isn’t my particular problem. I can find my way around pretty well, partly because I have a sharp sense of N,S, E and W, and the ability to relate the directions to a map. (No doubt so many years of working outdoors, sailing and such has helped to develop this.)
I think I have a variant, though. Do you remember those tests where they present you with a “blown up” image of a box, or whatever, and you’re supposed to choose which image represents the thing once it’s put together again? I never could get those. Ever. I think that must be a spatial handicap, too.
Thank goodness I learned “lefty loosey, righty tighty” at an early age!
Yes, I remember those tests! I was hopeless at them too in that I always saw something fanciful which the testers hadn’t thought of. The curse/blessing of an overactive imagination….