Pezaris E, Casey M B
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167.
Brain Cogn. 1991 Sep;17(1):1-22. doi: 10.1016/0278-2626(91)90062-d.
This study investigated strategy and performance differences between right-handed boys and girls on a mental rotation task. Based on predictions from Casey and Brabeck's (1990) theory of sex differences, the study was also designed to identify a target group of right-handed girls with the optimal combination of genetic and environmental factors (high math/science achievers with nonright-handed immediate relatives). They were predicted to show strategies and performance more similar to those of the boys than to those of both the low math/science achieving girls and the high math/science girls with all right-handed immediate relatives (predicted to have the nonoptimal genotype). Strategy preference was measured using selective interference, whereby subjects solved mental rotation items concurrently with either verbal or visual-spatial interference tasks. Group comparisons were made on the amount of decrement in mental rotation performance as a result of the two types of interference tasks. This provided a basis for comparing the groups on the use of visual-spatial or verbal strategies on the mental rotation task. The boys: (1) did not show a significant advantage over the girls on the mental rotation items, but (2) did depend more on visual-spatial strategies than the girls, and (3) depended less on verbal strategies than the girls. The target girls: (1) outperformed the low math/science achieving girls on the mental rotation items and did not show a significant advantage over the other high math/science group, (2) depended more on visual-spatial strategies than both the other two groups of girls, and (3) depended less on verbal strategies than the low math/science girls, while showing no significant difference compared to the nonoptimal high math/science girls. Examining within-group differences, the boys preferred visual-spatial strategies, while the girls in both the nontarget groups preferred verbal ones. However, for the target girls, no within-subject strategy differences were found. The present findings support the theory that, like the boys, the target girls depend more on visual-spatial strategies than do other girls. It is possible that the target girls use a combination of visual-spatial and verbal strategies when solving mental rotation tasks.
本研究调查了右利手男孩和女孩在心理旋转任务中的策略及表现差异。基于凯西和布拉贝克（1990）的性别差异理论所做的预测，该研究还旨在确定一个右利手女孩的目标群体，他们具备遗传和环境因素的最佳组合（数学/科学成绩优异且直系亲属非右利手）。预计她们在策略和表现上与男孩更为相似，而非与数学/科学成绩低的女孩以及数学/科学成绩高但直系亲属均为右利手的女孩（预计具有非最佳基因型）相似。策略偏好通过选择性干扰来衡量，即让受试者在解决心理旋转项目的同时完成言语或视觉空间干扰任务。对两种干扰任务导致的心理旋转表现下降量进行了组间比较。这为比较各小组在心理旋转任务中使用视觉空间或言语策略的情况提供了依据。男孩：（1）在心理旋转项目上并未比女孩表现出显著优势，但（2）比女孩更依赖视觉空间策略，且（3）比女孩更少依赖言语策略。目标女孩：（1）在心理旋转项目上的表现优于数学/科学成绩低的女孩，且与其他数学/科学成绩高的组相比未表现出显著优势，（2）比其他两组女孩更依赖视觉空间策略，（3）比数学/科学成绩低的女孩更少依赖言语策略，而与非最佳基因型的数学/科学成绩高的女孩相比无显著差异。在研究组内差异时发现，男孩偏好视觉空间策略，而非目标组的女孩则偏好言语策略。然而，对于目标女孩，未发现个体内的策略差异。目前的研究结果支持了这样一种理论，即目标女孩与男孩一样，比其他女孩更依赖视觉空间策略。目标女孩在解决心理旋转任务时可能会同时使用视觉空间和言语策略。
