Spatial Abilities in Athletes

AUTHOR: Mattie Creager
FACULTY: Cara Laney
DEPARTMENT: Psychology

ABSTRACT

Spatial ability plays a big role in how athletes perform. Mental rotation, spatial visualization, and spatial perception help athletes hit a ball, shoot a ball into a basket, and interpret plays drawn on a board making the drawing reality. This ability differentiates mediocre from excellent athletes but is too often ignored. Does spatial awareness vary between females and males who play different sports? In the present study, college athletes completed tests of spatial perception (identifying what a box would look like unfolded), spatial visualization (determining relative distances on a map), and mental rotation. Key findings included higher mental rotation scores for male athletes relative to females and lower overall scores for softball players compared to those in other sports. Just like athletes train their muscles to make themselves stand out, spatial abilities need to be trained to raise athletes to the next level