Are Women Really This Dumb (Spatial Skills)?

[Podkayne]

Argh . . . I wish I could find some pictures illustrating how the test actually works.
ZenBeam, from Tansu’s link:

In [the Water Level Test] subjects are required to draw in the water level
in a picture of a tipped glass.

Also from http://www.ul.ie/~mearsa/9519211/onthe.htm

Men consistently outperform women on Piaget’s water-level task. In the task, subjects are shown a picture of a container with a certain level of water in it, depicted by a line drawn across the container, they then see the container tilted but empty. The task requires a participant to draw in the water line on the tilted container.

And, more interestingly:

Ross Vasta, PhD, of the State University of New York, conducted a study with adults which, successfully eliminated the gender difference in performing the water-level task by training participants in advance. The results were most interesting: women who had completed the training performed slightly better than men who had had the training. When asked to explain the principles behind the task, many more men than women—in both the training group and in a control group that didn’t receive training on the task—answered correctly. However, more women in the training group answered correctly than women in the control group.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally posted by ZenBeamWhere are people reading that it’s a drawing of a bottle with water, as opposed to a real bottle with water in it?

*Originally posted by AudreyK *It was a condition posed in KneadtoKnow’s first post.

And I would like to say that I may have been too hasty in what I said earlier.

Based on my own experience with this kind of testing, I jumped to the conclusion that the test involved showing line drawings for the “before” and the “after”; in looking further at the OP and it’s linked page, I realize such may not have been the case in this study. In particular, I did not realize that the subjects were obliged to draw their own “after” picture.

[Surreal]

So these women never noticed that the surface of a liquid is generally HORIZONTAL until they received special ‘training’?

They’ve never poured something out of a glass before??

[Whack-a-Mole]

*Originally posted by KneadToKnow *
**And I would like to say that I may have been too hasty in what I said earlier. **

In fairness to KneadToKnow I went with the drawing deal because that is how the test was presented to me in the lecture I was at. The good doctor provided an overhead with a drawing of a flask standing upright and a line drawn horizontally inside the flask. She explained that the drawing represented a container filled with water indicated by the line. Beneath the drawing were four or five options with the flask tilted at different angles and in different directions. Each flask had a line drawn in it and we were told to pick the flask that had the water level drawn correctly (multiple guess).

This approach may indeed have its flaws but I don’t understand testing methodology well enough to see why the test I was given might skew the results. Given the nature of the lecture though the doctor was more interested in her speech than maintaining a controlled testing environment. Mostly she used it all for illustration purposes. I would presume (hope), however, that she had done the tests in a more thorough and controlled manner before ever takling to us.

[sengle]

I’ve noticed something similar but have tried to resist making the generalization. When I used to camp using at tent trailer I repeatedly noticed a pattern that goes as follows; husband drives up to the camp site, releases wife to assist guiding the trailer into the camp site, trying to avoid various obstacles strategically placed for the entertainment of the management and other campers, wife proves to be entirely unable to assist in the process, tempers rise and marital stress (polite or otherwise) ensues.

Men seem to be able to do this, women seem not to be able to do this. I agree it’s a big generalization, but spend a friday evening at a KOA and you’ll come away with overwhelming empirical evidence.

[lee]

My husband still tests as pre-operational. If you show him a tall glass he will think it holds more than a short fat glass, even one that holds more, even when he has used both to server soda and knows that the tall one is not big enough for a whole can with ice and the short one isn’t.

I would like to see the real set up of the test.

I fail to be amazed at stupid resonses since I taught spreadsheets, and thus order of operations, to bankers. Having a whole room of people whose job it is to add up numbers tell me that 1+2x3=9 day after day wore me down.

Note my spatial skills seem higher than KellyM’s and my husband’s. Make of that what you will.

[Whack-a-Mole]

*Originally posted by lee *
**Note my spatial skills seem higher than KellyM’s and my husband’s. Make of that what you will. **

As mentioned this means nothing. The tests strictly show a broad tendency. as I mentioned any single person can buck the trend. Men who are excellent at language skills and women who excel at spatial skills are fairly common.

By the way you’ll be happy to know that at least one person here (and I’d wager a few thousand besides) know the answer to your math problem is 7.

I too have tried to get others to remember their order of operations but they refuse to believe and even go so far as to pull out a calculator and ‘show’ me I’m wrong. If I’m lucky (and have it with me) I pull out my better calculator that lets you write out equations and show them the correct answer. They still don’t believe me thinking I programmed the thing to trick them…as I result I can at least sympathize with you.

[ZenBeam]

From the quoted part of Podkayne’s link:

In the task, subjects are shown a picture of a container with a certain level of water in it, depicted by a line drawn across the container, they then see the container tilted but empty. The task requires a participant to draw in the water line on the tilted container.

This description, at least, could be interpreted to mean “draw in the water line as shown in the first picture”. This is a description of the test, and not the instructions from actual test. One would hope the test makers would try to avoid possible misinterpretations, but it does make me wonder if part of the difference is misinterpretation of what is being asked for.

[kanicbird]

Just shows a fundemental difference between the sexes. If they had to write down their responses I would wag that 95% of the women spelt horizontal correctly while only 65% of the men did - if you get my drift.

[flabbygirlyman]

All in all, I find that it’s best to remember to put the seat down after using it .

[amarinth]

*Originally posted by ZenBeam *
**From the quoted part of Podkayne’s link:
This description, at least, could be interpreted to mean “draw in the water line as shown in the first picture”. This is a description of the test, and not the instructions from actual test. One would hope the test makers would try to avoid possible misinterpretations, but it does make me wonder if part of the difference is misinterpretation of what is being asked for. **

I’m wondering this as well, because I simply cannot fathom that adult people (male or female) would not know that the water line stays horizontal.

Could the people who get it wrong simply think that they’re being asked to rotate the picture of the pitcher?

[SpoilerVirgin]

Just for fun, I performed my own little Water Level Test experiment. I drew a picture of an upright bottle with a water line, and a tilted bottle without a water line. I photocopied the picture so that everyone would be working from the same test. Then I asked my subjects to draw a line to show the water level in the tilted bottle.

All of my subjects (4 female, 1 male) correctly drew a horizontal line. I was hoping to find at least one person who would fail the test. Of course my results don’t really prove anything, except that all of my coworkers understand basic principles of liquids.