Relationship between Sex-Role and Acquisition of Motor Skill

Abstract

In an experiment examining the relationship between sex-role and acquisition of motor skill, sex-role was related to performance (time-on-target) and reminiscence for women but not men. 15 androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated men ( n — 60) and women ( n = 60) performed 80 15-sec. trials on the pursuit-rotor. Results indicated that the time-on-target performance of men as a group was significantly better than that of women. However, the data indicated that the performance of androgynous women was not significantly different from all groups of men; feminine women showed the poorest performance. Femininity was related to poorer performance only in women. Feminine women also had the highest reminiscence scores (a measure of recovery from performance decrement during 15-sec. rest intervals). For these performance measures (time-on-target and reminiscence) under these conditions, motor skill varied as a function of sex-role for women.