In January 2005, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers was speaking at a conference called "Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce: Women, Underrepresented Minorities, and their S. & E. Careers." A major focus of the conference was the gap between women and men in their representation among top positions in science and technology. Summers offered three possible reasons for this gender gap. The biggest, he speculated, was that women are less willing than men to spend the 60-plus hours a week away from their children that a top position demands. The next reason he suggested was that boys more often than girls score at the extremes (either very high or very low) on high school math and science tests, and these trends in scoring follow students into the work force.What Summers is said to have done next by some who were present at the meeting is to speculate that part of the reason for these differences in high school test scores was genetic--in other words, women are simply innately "stuck" in the middle range of science and math ability compared to men

The fall-out from Summers' alleged comments was considerable, and Harvard has since implemented several initiatives aimed at increasing the number of women in engineering, mathematics, and science programs at the University. But other than the immediate impact on Harvard, Summers' comments stirred up a messy controversy that has been raging for centuries: are there innate sex differences in intelligence that can explain why men rise to the top in some professions, and women in others? Or are such differences a result of cultural biases and years of "training." In this study, we will investigate one ability that appears to vary between men and women: spatial ability.

In class, we will be discussing the development of gender, and differences between men and women in their brains and behavior. Typically, it is reported that men are superior to women in their spatial abilities (e.g., Maccoby& Jacklin, 1974; Vandenburg & Kuse, 1979), yet some studies (e.g. Caplan, MacPherson, & Tobin, 1985; Hyde, 1981) have suggested that this claim is unwarrented, since the difference between the average men's score on a spatial skills test and the average women's score is very small.

Still others have pointed out that no matter how small the difference is, it's constancy is worth noting, and needs explaining. Currently most explanations involve both environmental and genetic factors, in a complex interplay, at different times and in different combinations--all working together to develop spatial ability.

In this assignment, you will test this idea that men and women differ in their spatial abilities, and collect some data to try to help you puzzle out what might explain the performance of your subjects.

Methods:

Materials Needed: Mental Rotations Test Packet (one per subject, to be handed out in class)
Master Data Sheet (download from the link below)
Correction Sheet (to be handed out in class)
A stopwatch or wristwatch with a minute hand

Number of Subjects: Four (2 men, and 2 women)

Time per subject: About 10 minutes

Time for experimenter: About one hour

For this investigation, you will need to find two men and two women who are willing to be your subjects. Read through all of these instructions carefully before you begin. Find a quiet location where your subject can do his or her best in concentrating on the test. Be sure that s/he is seated comfortably. Tell your subject that you are going to give them a timed test of their spatial abilities. The test is in two parts. Each part takes three minutes.

First, give them a test packet and ask them to read the cover page that explains what it is they will be asked to do. Be sure to ask if they have any questions at this point. Then, tell them to begin. Time them for three minutes. When the three minutes are up, stop them and ask them to go on to the next test. Again, when you say "Begin," they should start the test, and you should start timing them. At the end of three minutes, ask them to stop, and to take a few minutes to answer the questions on the back of their data sheet. Be sure to thank your subject!

Summarize your findings on your data sheet, and write up a research summary of your results. For your summary, be sure to describe your methods concisely, but clearly, so that a naive reader could understand exactly what you did. Be sure to describe what it was that your subject was trying to do!

For your results, count up the number of right anwers for each subject, and put that number in the correct location on the Master Data Sheet. Then, count up the number of wrong answers for each subject, and put THAT number in the correct location on the Master Data Sheet. Find the average number of right and wrong answers for the men, and the average number of right and wrong answers for the women. Report these results in your "Results" section.

Finally, in your discussion, you should do two things. First, compare the results from your male and female subjects. Do your results match those described above for men and women? Do they support the idea of a sex difference in spatial ability?

Then, take a look at the answers that your subjects gave to the questions on the back of their data sheets. How might individual experiences explain the results that you found? Are there any experiences more common to the women than to the men in your study? More common to the men than to the women in your study? How might experience play a role in any sex difference that you find? Should we call it a sex difference, or a gender difference? What do you think? Why? Be sure to try to answer all of these questions in your discussion.
And be sure to include ALL of your data sheets with this assignment. As before, AN ASSIGNMENT WITHOUT COMPLETED DATA SHEETS WILL NOT BE GRADED.

Documents You Will Need:

Mental Rotation Data Sheet (you will need a computer that can download and open a data sheet in MS Excel to use this document). Turn this data sheet in with your summary.

References:

Caplan, P.J., MacPherson, G.M., &Tobin, P. (1985). Do sex-related differences in
spatial abilities exist? A multi-level critique with new data. American
Psychologist, 40, 786-799.

Crawford, H.J., & Christensen, L.B. (1995). Developing Research Skills: A Laboratory Manual, 3rd Edition. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Hyde, J.S. (1981). How large are cognitive gender differences? A meta-analysis using
W2 and D. American Psychologist, 36, 892-301.

Maccoby, E.M. & Jacklin, C.N. (1974). The Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford,
CA: Stanford Univ. Press.

Vandenburg, S. & Kuse, A.R. (1979). Spatial ability: A critical review of the sex-linked
major gene hypothesis. In M. Wittig &A.C. Petersen, (eds.), Sex-Related
Differences in Cognitive Functioning. (pp. 67-95). New York: Academic Press.