THE INFLUENCE OF MIRROR REVERSALS ON MALE AND FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN SPATIAL TASKS - A COMPONENTIAL LOOK

O'Boyle and Hoff (Neuropsychologia, 25, 977-982,1987) reported that fe males were faster and more accurate than mates at mirror-tracing the o utline of random shapes. To account for this differential performance, the authors advanced two alternative explanations. The first was a 'S patial Stroop' effect which suggested that, because of their enhanced spatial ability, males are especially disadvantaged in escaping the mi sleading visual feedback provided by the mirror, resulting in slower a nd less accurate tracings. The second was a 'manipulospatial' hypothes is which suggested that the tracing advantage was related to female su periority in fine-detailed motor control, and perhaps, differential pr actice at performing skilled motor tasks in mirror-reversed contexts. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to assess the rel ative viability of these explanations. In Experiment 1, the WAIS-R Blo ck Design task was performed within and outside the context of a mirro r. This was done to determine if the observed female advantage was res tricted to mirror-tracing per se, or generalizable to other manipulosp atial tasks. In Experiment 2, a mental rotation task was performed wit hin and outside the context of a minor. The latter was designed to rev eal if the removal of the motor component would affect the obtained se x difference. The present findings suggest that as long as some form o f precision motor manipulation is required, females are superior to ma les at mirror-reversed spatial tasks. However, when the motor componen t is eliminated, a male performance advantage emerges in both normal a nd mirror-reversed contexts, suggesting that the manipulospatial hypot hesis is the more viable explanation.