The Relationship Between Psychological Androgyny and Performance on Piagetian Spatial Tasks in College Women

Abstract

Past research has shown that males typically perform better than females on Piagetian spatial tasks. Other studies indicate that when a task is labelled "masculine" or "feminine", subjects tend to perform better in the "sex-appropriate" condition. This study presented the Piagetian spatial tasks in the traditional fashion as well as in a feminine typed condition. Sex-role identity rather than gender was examined in relation to spatial skills. Ninety college women completed the Bern Sex Role Inventory; it was hypothesized that the androgenous typed females would perform equally well in both the masculine and the feminine typed conditions. The rules of horizontality and verticality were explicitly stated upon completion of the first set of tasks to determine whether those subjects who had failed, would then learn and apply the information in subsequent tasks. Results suggest that androgenous individuals were better able to apply the given rules in subsequent tasks.