Vandenberg Test Research Articles

Mean differences among subcomponents of Vandenberg's Mental Rotation Test.

The current investigation was designed to answer three questions: is the sex difference on Vandenberg's Mental Rotation Test present in all five subsections, what is the relation with performance, and what are the estimates of split-half reliability. Undergraduate students (55 men and 52 women) enrolled in introductory psychology courses were administered Vandenberg's test and were given 6 min. to complete the test. An over-all significant sex difference indicated men's mean performance was significantly higher than women's "total item score" and "total ratio item score," but only for Section 4(D). This suggests that men were not significantly better at identifying all types of visual spatial items on all parts of Vandenberg's test and that the source of the sex difference may be due, at least in part, to performance factors. Reliability measures for Vandenberg's test were established for the 6-min. completion time. Spearman-Brown reliability coefficient was calculated for the "item score," "ratio item score," and "attempted item" scores (.86, .85, and .93, respectively).

MEAN DIFFERENCES AMONG SUBCOMPONENTS OF VANDENBERG'S MENTAL ROTATION TEST

The current investigation was designed to answer three questions: is the sex difference on Vandenberg's Mental Rotation Test present in all five subsections, what is the relation with performance, and what are the estimates of split-half reliability. Undergraduate students (55 men and 52 women) enrolled in introductory psychology courses were administered Vandenberg's test and were given 6 min. to complete the test. An over-all significant sex difference indicated men's mean performance was significantly higher than women's “total item score” and “total ratio item score,” but only for Section 4(D). This suggests that men were not significantly better at identifying all types of visual spatial items on all parts of Vandenberg's test and that the source of the sex difference may be due, at least in pan, to performance factors. Reliability measures for Vandenberg's test were established for the 6-min. completion time. Spearman-Brown reliability coefficient was calculated for the “item score,” “ratio item score,” and “attempted item” scores (.86, .85, and .93, respectively).

A large sex difference on a two-dimensional mental rotation task.

Mental rotation tests require participants to identify rotated versions of a target stimulus. The Vandenberg Mental Rotations Test depicts rotations in 3-D space and typically yields one of the largest established cognitive sex differences favoring males. It is presently unclear whether this male advantage is related to the nature of rotations depicted in 3-D space or to the high level of difficulty of this task. The present study developed a new test depicting picture plane, or 2-D, rotations. When task difficulty within this 2-D test was varied, a male advantage as large as that seen on the Vandenberg test was found for the difficult component. These findings suggest that processing in 3 dimensions is not a necessary condition for a large sex difference on tests of mental rotation.