# A Global Overview of SVA--Spatial-Visual Ability
## 3 Constructs of Spatial-Visual Ability  
The term \"spatial ability\" has been defined as _\"skill in representing, transforming, generating, and recalling symbolic, non-linguistic information\"_ by [PERSON] and [PERSON] in Emergence and Characterisation of Sex Differences in spatial ability: A Meta-Analysis, Child Development, Wiley-Blackwell, Society for Research in Child Development, 1985. Ref. [1] addressed the factors that contribute to disparities in performance on tests of spatial ability, encompassing environmental, genetic, hormonal, and neurological aspects. Gender disparities in perceptual-cognitive functioning arise from variances in spatial perception and orientation capacity. Neurological studies offer clinical substantiation for the framework of differences in spatial ability, specifically in regard to handedness and brain lateralisation for spatial and language processing. A China-based study [10] that examined the correlation between socioeconomic status (SES) and brain anatomy, primarily focusing on grey-matter volume (GMV) and white-matter integrity (measured by fractional anisotropy, FA), concluded that SES is positively associated with greater cognitive abilities. It also found that females from higher-SES families have imaging results that indicate an increased level of neural tissue, such as higher FA and lesser mean diffusivity (MD). In contrast, males display the reverse patterns. The categorisation of spatial ability has been inconsistent and indeterministic across literature. Over the years, spatial abilities have been renamed several times by academicians and researchers alike. The prefix \"spatial\" remains constant, whereas the suffix \"ability\" has been interchanged with \"cognition, reasoning, skill, reasoning, perception, etc.\". The configuration of spatial ability vary by researcher based on their domain of study [13]. On the basis of the abundance of factor-analysis studies done since the 1930s, two distinct spatial abilities, \"visualisation\" and \"orientation\", were identified [1]. [PERSON] definesSpatial-visual spatial-visualisation \"as the ability to mentally rotate, manipulate, and twist two- and three-dimensional stimulus objects\" and spatial orientation \"as the ability that includes the comprehension of the arrangement of elements within a visual stimulus pattern, the aptitude to remain unconfused by the changing orientations in which a spatial configuration may be presented, and an ability to determine spatial orientation with respect to one's body\" [1; 13]. Spatial information comprised of shapes, locations, paths, and relationships amongst them is portrayed in human cognition and can be mentally manipulated to construct and navigate the physical entity, an ability that ultimately leads to successful academic and intellectual endeavours. A distinction between spatial representations is driven by a range of cognitive, neurological, and linguistic concerns: (1) those that are _\"intrinsic\"_ to objects--their shapes and form-based representation--and (2) those that are _\"extrinsic\"_--relationships between and among objects and frames of reference [18]. Ref. [19] proposed three distinct subconstructs of spatial ability based on a meta-analysis of studies conducted from 1974 to 1982: (1) mental rotation--the ability to rotate a 2D or 3D figure/object swiftly and precisely (p. 1483); (2) spatial visualisation--the ability to manipulate complicated spatial information in multiple steps; and (3) spatial perception--the ability to identify spatial relationships with respect to the orientation of one's own body, despite the presence of distracting information. [PERSON] (2000), as cited by [20], identified six spatial parameters that are widely accepted because they can be clearly distinguished by experimental measurement: _\"spatial orientation, spatial location memory, targeting, spatial visualization, dis-embedding and spatial perception\"_. As a multifaceted capacity, spatial ability comprises several subconstructs.