Observational training improves adult womens' performance on Piaget's water-level task.
Among women university students who lacked conceptual understanding of the principle that the surface of still water is always horizontal, a specific task procedure designed to optimize self-discovery of the principle proved effective. Successful learning was reflected in more accurate responses on an adjustment task and by a significant increase (p less than .01) in the number of subjects able to verbalize a correct strategy. In contrast to previous research the results show that adult womens' performance on the water-level task can be improved by observational training, suggesting that the female lag in spatial skills may depend on experiential factors.
Krekling
S
S
Department of Psychology, University of Trondheim, Norway.
Nordvik
H
H
D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D011601:Psychophysics; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013028:Space Perception