PERFORMANCE-FACTORS AND GENDER-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN SPATIAL ABILITY- ANOTHER ASSESSMENT

To explore whether test-taking styles (performance factors) can contri bute to explaining gender-related differences on tests of spatial abil ity, 15 spatial tests were administered to three samples of subjects. On each test, number-correct scores and ratio scores (number of items solved divided by the number of items attempted) were computed. In acc ordance with previous research findings, the use of ratio scores signi ficantly reduced the magnitude of the gender-related differences on th e Mental Rotations Test. For most of the remaining tests, however, the reduction of the gender-related score difference was small. It was co ncluded that the difference reduction for the Mental Rotations Test wa s specific to the format of this test. In common spatial tests, perfor mance factors may account for a small portion of gender-related varian ce, but the bulk of this variance must be attributed to other factors.