Contribution of sex-differentiated experiences to spatial and mechanical reasoning abilities.
For 137 women and 115 men first-year college students tested spatial visualization and mechanical reasoning were most strongly correlated with four everyday spatial abilities--understanding mathematics/science and graphs/charts, drafting and drawing things, and arranging objects. Despite greater practice on only 2 of 10 activities, men uniformly judged they had significantly better spatial ability compared to their same-gender peers than did the women.
D000328:Adult; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012737:Sex Factors; D013028:Space Perception