title: Trade-off in object versus spatial visualization abilities: restriction in the development of visual-processing resources.
abstract: Previous research indicates relative independence between the ventral and dorsal visual pathways, associated with object and spatial visual processing, respectively. The present research shows that, at the individual-differences level, there is a trade-off, rather than independence, between object and spatial visualization abilities. Across five different age groups with different professional specializations, participants with above-average object visualization abilities (artists) had below-average spatial visualization abilities, and the inverse was true for those with above-average spatial visualization abilities (scientists). No groups showed both above-average object and above-average spatial visualization abilities. Furthermore, while total object and spatial visualization resources increase with age and experience, the trade-off relationship between object and spatial visualization abilities does not. These results suggest that the trade-off originates through a bottleneck that restricts the development of overall visualization resources, rather than through preferential experience in one type of visualization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA. mkozhevn@gmu.edu
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kozhevnikov
authors.forename: Olesya
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Blazhenkova
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Becker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001108:Architecture; D001154:Art; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006803:Human Development; D006809:Humanities / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012586:Science; D012737:Sex Factors; D013028:Space Perception; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult