Sex Differences Related to the Effect of Auditory Stimulation on the Stability of Visually Fixated Forms

Abstract

Within has suggested that women's poor performance in adjusting a rod to true vertical in the rod-frame and related tasks was due to a lesser tendency to use stimulation from their bodies. The present study investigated whether women's presumed lesser use of kinesthetic stimulation might imply a lesser use of auditory stimulation accompanying perception of triangle forms presented at near threshold intensities. Contrary to this possibility, it was found that women used concurrent auditory stimulation more than men to facilitate visual perception of the triangles. An attempt was made to resolve these apparently opposed findings by viewing them as a consequence of men's and women's different styles of using stimulation in relation to the tasks with which they were confronted.