Age and Sex Differences in Representation of Horizontality among Children in India

Abstract

Girls and boys from Grades 4 ( ns = 15) and 9 ( ns = 15 and 16) in Bombay, India were individually administered water-level and crossbar assessments of horizontality representation. Ninth graders were more successful than fourth graders, especially on trials in which the apparatus was obliquely rotated. Ninth graders, however, did not perform at ceiling levels, and a sex difference with a moderate effect size favoring male over female adolescents was obtained for the water-level task. These findings of both developmental and individual differences in horizontality performance replicate previous findings in Western cultures.