Sex Differences in Performance on Piagetian Spatial Tasks: Differences in Competence or Performance?.

LIBEN, LYNN S., and GOLBECK, SUSAN L. Sex Differences in Performance on Piagetian Spatial Tasks: Differences in Competence or Performance? CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 594-597. Past research on Piagetian water-level and plumb-line tasks has shown that males' performance surpasses females' and that scores on the 2 tasks are highly correlated in males only. To test competence versus performance explanations of these findings, 240 children in grades 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 were given either "physical" or "nonphysical" versions of horizoritality (H) and verticality (V) tasks. In the former, subjects were asked to draw water levels and plumb lines. In the latter, they were asked to draw lines that were "straight across" or "straight up and down" in tipped rectangles. As predicted, performance was better in older children and on the nonphysical task. Also as predicted, correlations between H and V scores were significant in males but not females on the physical version, but high in both sexes on the nonphysical version. Contrary to predictions, no interaction between sex and task version was found: males excelled on bdth. Results indicate that the performance factors examined do, in part, account for subjects' difficulties on standard Piagetian H and V tasks but that they cannot fully account for the overall sex differences.