Effects of gender on perception of spatial illusions.

Popular theories explaining performance differences between males and females generally predict that females tend to outperform males on certain perceptual and linguistic tasks, while males outperform females on tasks involving visual-spatial skills. 28 males and females were shown commercially available computer-generated 3-dimensional illusions in which the hidden object(s) varied in complexity. Although females reported more prior experience with this form of art, males were about four times faster at identifying the illusions at all levels of difficulty.