Chapter 10

Spatial Orientation, Memorization, and Visualization

Introduction

One of the requirements for being a police officer is vision correctable to 20/20. Well, that perfect vision won’t do you any good if you can’t use it intelligently. That’s where questions about spatial orientation, visualization, and observation come in.

As a police officer, you need to be able to observe a scene and sort through all the thousands of details to come up with the relevant information. You also must do it quickly—almost unconsciously. Of course, you will develop this skill with experience, but the program you are applying to wants to know whether you’ve got the basics in place already. These question types will test your attention to detail, your memory, and your ability to see beyond what is right in front of you to predict what might happen.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will review how to:

• 10.1: Read maps to find the quickest route
• 10.2: Memorize elements of street scenes
• 10.3: Recognize and identify facial features
• 10.4: Visualize patterns
• 10.5: Identify identical patterns and objects