A PARAMETRIC STUDY OF VOLUME AND SURFACE JUDGEMENTS

Ten prisms and 10 plates differing in height were presented to 30 male and 30 female college students whose task was to judge volume and surface of the solids. No sex differences in volume or surface estimates were found. Increasing the height of a prism from a cube initially resulted in underestimates of volume; for prisms whose heights deviated markedly from a cube, a consistent and steadily increasing tendency to overestimate volume occurred. Decreasing the height of a plate from a cube initially had no significant effect on surface estimates, but with a marked decrease in height, a consistent and steadily increasing tendency to underestimate surface resulted. © 1969 Psychonomic Society, Inc.