ELIMINATING GENDER DIFFERENCES THROUGH PRACTICE IN AN APPLIED VISUAL-SPATIAL TASK

Training strategies to reduce the well-documented (e.g., Linn & Peters en, 1985; Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995) gender difference in visual sp atial ability were investigated. Participants (21 men, 21 women) were trained under 1 of 2 conditions to estimate the orientation angle of a ship viewed on a submarine periscope simulator. The data were analyze d in a 3 x 2 x 2 (Training Conditions x Gender x Test Session) mixed d esign with repeated measures over the last variable. A significant Tra ining Condition x Gender interaction revealed large performance differ ences in favor of men in the control group and the group trained using an instruction manual. However, no significant gender difference was found for participants trained with repeated practice accompanied by f eedback. This suggests that even a brief training session, using an ap propriate instructional strategy, may be all that is required to incre ase the mental rotation performance of women to the level of men on a specific task. The benefit of the instruction was still evident when t ested 3 weeks later; the gender difference was still absent.