NONTRIVIAL SEX-DIFFERENCES IN THROWING AND INTERCEPTING - RELATION TO PSYCHOMETRICALLY-DEFINED SPATIAL FUNCTIONS

Biological sex is a marked individual difference, yet sex differences obtained on cognitive tests are often slight. In general, males excel on psychometric tests of spatial ability, whereas females enjoy an advantage on tests of verbal and fine motor ability. In a previous study on hand preferences, substantial sex differences favouring males were found on two target-directed motor tasks: dart-throwing and projectile interception. This advantage was not readily attributable to sex differences in physique or athletic experience. Such tasks may employ a more fundamental form of spatial ability, relating to real world target analysis. In the present study, these sex differences were examined along with established measures of spatial function, and a novel visualization test (Viewfinding Test). In contrast to the large sex differences found for the motor tasks, only weak trends were found on the paper-and-pencil spatial tests. Males were significantly better on the Viewfinding Test, however. The paper-and-pencil tasks and the Viewfinding Task generally intercorrelated amongst themselves, but were uncorrelated with accuracy on the target-directed motor tasks. Thus, target-directed motor tasks may employ a type of spatial function that is somewhat separable from traditionally-measured spatial abilities. The importance of human ethology for the study of sex differences is discussed. © 1991.