Gender differences in horizontality and verticality representation in relation to initial position of the stimuli.

Abstract

Research on gender differences in the ability to represent horizontality in the water-level task has suggested that failure in some women may be connected with responding while envisioning the upright container as shifting to a tilted position and holding liquid in motion, rather than imaging that the container has reached the tilted position and holds still liquid. The present experiment attempted to eliminate such faulty conceptualization by solely presenting containers that had already reached a stable, tilted position. College students of both sexes were submitted either to the modified, static presentation of the water-level task or to the standard, dynamic format using both upright and tilted positions. The subjects were also submitted to corresponding plumb-line tasks requiring verticality representation. In addition, they rated the vividness of their movement imagery. Contrary to prediction, women's proficiency was not higher under the static format of the water-level and plumb-line tasks. However, as expected, men's achievement was independent from presentation format. Men surpassed women under both static and dynamic formats. Finally, performance was not correlated with movement imagery. Lack of a presentation effect on women's performance was attributed to the fact that a number of women presumed an element of motion when responding, even though stationary stimuli were shown.