A number of cognitive skills relevant to conceptual design have been previously identified: divergent thinking, visual thinking, spatial reasoning, qualitative reasoning, and problem formulation. A battery of standardized test has been developed for each of these skills. This is the second paper in a series of papers on testing individual skill level differences in engineers and engineering students. In the first paper, we reported on the theoretical and empirical basis for divergent thinking test, as well as, on test formulation, data collection, norming studies, and statistical validation of that test. This paper focuses similarly on the efforts related to the visual thinking and spatial reasoning in engineering context. We have decomposed visual thinking into six categories: visual comprehension including perceptual speed, visual memory (that is, the visual memory system), visual synthesis mental image manipulation/transformation, spatial reasoning, and graphical expression/elaboration. We discuss the theoretical basis of a comprehensive test for engineers, test composition, trial runs, and computation of reliability measures. The alpha version was given to a small set of subjects to determine clarity of the questions and gauge difficulty level. The beta version was used for norming and test validation from over 500 samples that included engineering students and a smaller number of practicing engineers. Construct validation was achieved through basing the construction of our instrument off other well-known measures of visual thinking, while content validity was assured through thoroughly sampling the domain of visual thinking and including a variety of items both pertinent and specific to the engineering design process. The factor analysis reveals that there are possibly two eigenvalues above 1.0, an indication that it is a stable and accurate instrument. We emphasize that these tests are not just dependent on native abilities, but on education and experience; design skills are teachable and learnable.
Skip Nav Destination
Arizona State University,
Texas A&M University,
Texas A&M University,
Article navigation
July 2013
Research-Article
Applied Tests of Design Skills—Part II: Visual Thinking
Jami J. Shah,
Arizona State University,
Jami J. Shah
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
,Arizona State University,
Tempe, AZ
85258
Search for other works by this author on:
Jay Woodward,
Texas A&M University,
Jay Woodward
Department of Educational Psychology
,Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843
Search for other works by this author on:
Steven M. Smith
Texas A&M University,
Steven M. Smith
Department of Psychology
,Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843
Search for other works by this author on:
Jami J. Shah
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
,Arizona State University,
Tempe, AZ
85258
Jay Woodward
Department of Educational Psychology
,Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843
Steven M. Smith
Department of Psychology
,Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843
Contributed by the Design Education Committee of ASME for publication in the Journal of Mechanical Design. Manuscript received May 9, 2012; final manuscript received April 10, 2013; published online xx xx, xxxx. Assoc. Editor: Janis Terpenny.
J. Mech. Des. Jul 2013, 135(7): 071004 (11 pages)
Published Online: May 24, 2013
Article history
Received:
May 9, 2012
Revision Received:
April 10, 2013
Citation
Shah, J. J., Woodward, J., and Smith, S. M. (May 24, 2013). "Applied Tests of Design Skills—Part II: Visual Thinking." ASME. J. Mech. Des. July 2013; 135(7): 071004. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4024228
Download citation file:
Get Email Alerts
Related Articles
Applied Tests of Design Skills—Part III: Abstract Reasoning
J. Mech. Des (October,2014)
The Effects of Language and Pruning on Function Structure Interpretability
J. Mech. Des (June,2012)
An Analysis of Sketching Skill and Its Role in Early Stage Engineering Design
J. Mech. Des (May,2007)
Semantic Networks for Engineering Design: State of the Art and Future Directions
J. Mech. Des (February,2022)
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Chapters
Utility Function Fundamentals
Decision Making in Engineering Design
Multiobjective Decision-Making Using Physical Programming
Decision Making in Engineering Design
Knowledge-Based Engineering
Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing