The effect of perceptual speed on performance and paper-and-pencil measures of spatial ability is examined. Perceptual speed is defined as speed in comparing figures or symbols, scanning to find figures or symbols, or carrying out other very simple tasks involving visual perception. It was hypothesized that perceptual speed would have more…

Deficits in spatial abilities, particularly Mental Rotation (MR), may contribute to women's avoidance of areas of study (such as chemistry) that rely on MR. Those women who do succeed in chemistry may do so because they have MT skills that are on par with their male peers. We examined MR ability on 12 items from the Vandenberg and Kuse MR test…

Males have consistently been noted to perform better than females on Piagetian horizontality and verticality tasks. To examine whether females are less competent than males or whether mediating variables influence females' performance, 42 male and 42 female college students performed horizontality and verticality tasks. Subjects also rated their…

The extent to which sex differences on a mental rotation test were related to ocular dominance, handedness, and familial handedness was explored. The Vandenberg revision of the Shepard-Metzlar mental rotation test was administered to 206 college students. The test consisted of 20 criterion figures, each followed by two correct and two incorrect…

A Study was conducted to test the hypothesis proposed by J. S. Symmes and J. L. Rapoport that a sex-linked recessive gene might account for the good spatial ability found among dyslexic readers, the familial pattern of the disorder, and the frequently reported sex ratio of three affected males to one female. Spatial/reasoning ability scores were…

This paper highlights issues concerning the relationship between spatial reasoning and gender differences. It is noted that spatial reasoning can take on many different forms of expression, from geometric formations to abstract expressive creations. The definition of spatial reasoning for research purposes has been limited to a logical concept of…

This paper examines the differences between student performance on two separate measures, the Spatial Visualization portion of the "Differential Aptitude Test" and the "Geometry Content Knowledge Test." Results from the hybrid quantitative/qualitative study indicate that although there were no differences in performance on spatial visualization…

Research on the emergence of sex differences in spatial ability during early adolescence prompted a meta-analysis of 172 spatial ability studies conducted since 1974. The meta-analysis confirmed that there are actually several spatial abilities, that some types of spatial ability show marked sex differences while others show none, and that spatial…

This paper considers research on visual-spatial learning differences between males and females and how such differences can be overcome in science and mathematics curricula. It is suggested that one reason females are underrepresented in the areas of mathematics and science is that they tend to score lower on spatial visualization aptitude…

Although it has been suggested that women are less likely than men to use cardinality in dealing with environmental space, there has been no direct empirical assessment of this claim. If women are less likely than men to use cardinality, it is not clear whether women lack the competence to use a coordinate system of reference or simply prefer…

A number of cultural and neurophysiological variables were studied to examine their relationship with sex differences in spatial ability. Five paper-and-pencil spatial ability tests were administered to a group of 50 male and 51 female college students, with approximately equal numbers for each sex being left- or right-handed and left- or…

One hundred and seven 5th-8th graders were tested on spatial rotation multiple-choice items to determine age and gender differences in spatial ability. Thirty-one of them were subsequently interviewed. They were asked to explain their reasoning when solving 4 of the tested items and a problem-solving task. Features of visual and non-visual…

It has been hypothesized that differences in mathematical word problems are the result of differences in spatial skill. Why complex spatial abilities are needed for an individual to represent the relatively simple spatial relations in word problems is not clear. It is possible that a third variable, cognitive strategy preferences, may partially…

Individual differences in verbal/analytic and nonverbal/holistic cognitive strategies were studied in relationship to performance levels in spatial tasks, sex and handedness. Analytic processes are described as sequential, resulting in decomposition of stimulus information, and holistic processes, as parallel, involving information synthesis.…

Researchers disagree not only about the existence or magnitude of sex-related differences in spatial perception, but also about the determinants of such differences. Training in three distinct spatial tasks was provided in an attempt to destablize individual and sex-related differences, while exploring the relative contributions of biological and…