GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERFORMANCE ON TESTS OF COGNITIVE-ABILITIES - EXPERIMENTAL-DESIGN ISSUES AND EMPIRICAL RESULTS

Experimental design variables take on particular importance when infer ences are made about gender differences in cognitive abilities, especi ally when conclusions are derived from standardized tests administered to very large samples. Problems in the representativeness of the samp les of subjects and test items, in test reliability and factor purity, in the interpretation of effect sizes, and heterogeneity of variance can inadvertently bias conclusions drawn from scores of females and ma les on psychometric tests. Empirical research in this highly politiciz ed area is reviewed with an emphasis on those factors that could cause gender-related differences to be over- or underestimated.