Equivalence of male and female performance on a tactuospatial maze

Sex differences in performance of a tactuospatial finger-maze task were assessed in 28 male and 32 female right-handed college undergraduates. The subjects performed the task with their nondominant left hand, and were trained to one error-free trial within specified time limits. Cognitive tests were administered to assess vocabulary, word fluency, and spatial relations capabilities. The results failed to indicate any significant sex differences in performance on the tactuospatial maze in terms of mean errors, number of trials, and trial latencies, or on any of the cognitive tests. The findings strengthen proposals that male superiority in spatial ability may not be as substantial as commonly accepted, and that sex differences in performance may depend on the particular components of spatial ability that are measured in specific tasks.