I think this is a spatial relations type skill. Some people are born with the ability to rotate 3D objects in their mind, and others are not. As long as his spatial relations skills are at least average, I wouldn't worry. I have one who can visualize rotating and assembling 3D objects in her head, one who can't do this (but can see ahead many moves in stuff like chess), and one who is somewhere in between. All three are very bright kids (first two have been IDed as gifted, third kid is only 9 and we didn't get the others IDed until 7th grade).
I agree-- DH and I are at opposite ends of this spectrum.
Along with this spatial ability seems to be an ability to "visualize" maps internally, too. I can memorize routes from a quick look at Google maps, and GPS merely irritates me. I'm also the packing zen-master at our house. My DH is more or less helpless with this kind of thing, but my internal buffer has nearly
zero capacity for auditory or especially numerical information. Only visual/spatial.
DH, on the other hand, can memorize verbal/auditory information very well-- so well that he needn't take notes much of the time, and he has NO trouble recalling digits up to 14 or so-- and can retain them for
hours.He had to work
very hard to 'get' the spatial side of symmetry operators, molecular geometry, etc. That stuff is almost crazy easy for me-- it's the mathematical representations that seem awkward and clunky to me, but he found group theory an epiphany because he could finally "translate" all that stuff that hadn't made sense before.
I think of this ability as being like an internal Holo-deck, to use the term from Star Trek NG. If I can build it in my head (and mostly I can), then I can rotate, slice, dice, etc. etc. etc. Easy.
Give me a phone number, though, and I can't keep it in working memory long enough to DIAL it. Seriously. I can keep about three digits in my working memory.
