Typology of spatial ability tests and its implementation in architectural study entrance exams

Abstract

Specialized spatial skills are necessary for success in various fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Technical disciplines are an academic field where the largest correlation with spatial skills has been noticed, and therefore spatial skills have been included in the entrance exams of study of architecture at the University of Banja Luka.

Given that the scientific community has not reached consensus on what the spatial abilities are, there are various tests and tools used for its assessment, listed by factors that they measure. The paper will present typology of these factors and the variety of tests used for their assessment. This typology of tasks will be compared to the entrance exams held at the University of Banja Luka in the period 2005-2013.

Also, the results of entrance exams will be compared with the student’s success in specific groups of subjects during the study period to see if there would be any correlation among them.

Results indicate at the emergence of a new factor in assessing the ability of candidates to study architecture - ability of divergent thinking. This correlation of divergent thinking and spatial ability has also been a topic of the latest research in cognitive psychology.