Ability and Sex-Related Differences in Cognitive Strategies on Spatial Tasks

Abstract Individual differences in cognitive strategies and their relationships to spatial ability, sex, and handedness were investigated. Undergraduates (N = 165) were given two spatial ability tests and a spatial strategy questionnaire (SSQ). High spatial performance was significantly related to holistic/nonverbal strategies and was more strongly related to the reported difficulty of such strategies than to the frequency of their use. Although males scored significantly higher than females on one spatial test, no other sex differences were found. The results suggest that strategy differences between males and females may be found only on difficult spatial tests and that flexibility of strategy use may be an important component of spatial performance.

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