THE EFFECTS OF SPATIAL VISUALIZATION AND STUDENTS SEX ON MATHEMATICALACHIEVEMENT

Sex differences in mathematical achievement and spatial visualization skill were examined in a sample of 724 Norwegian sixth-grade students. Boys had significantly higher mean mathematics scores than girls. Sig nificant sex differences favouring boys were found in the subsamples o f most difficult tasks, but not in the subsamples of easiest tasks. No significant sex difference in spatial visualization was found. The hy pothesis that boys' superior achievement in mathematics is due to a su perior ability in spatial visualization was not supported. Although th e effect of spatial visualization on mathematical achievement increase d significantly up to a certain level of mathematics task difficulty, the hypothesis that the effect of spatial visualization on mathematica l achievement increases with increasing task difficulty was not fully supported. With increasing mathematics task difficulty, it is hypothes ized that boys, more than girls, will benefit from spatial visualizati on. This hypothesis was not supported by the present elementary school data.