Sex Differences in Visual-Spatial Performance among Ghanaian and Norwegian Adults

Abstract

Sex differences in spatial ability among adults in Western cultures are widely acknowledged, but few studies have assessed visual-spatial ability in non-Western subjects with tests that show the largest sex differences, and little is known whether effect sizes for different spatial ability categories are the same across cultures. This issue was addressed by using four visual spatial ability tests (water level, surface development, PMA space, and Vandenberg-Kuse) to collect data from university students in Ghana (n = 197) and Norway (n = 220). Except for the Surface Development test, on which no sex difference appeared in either sample, males perforned significantly better than females in both samples, and the effect sizes (r) were about medium, with no significant between-nationality difference on individual tests. These results showed that patterns and magnitudes of sex differences in spatial abilities were simiilar across cultures. The test intercorrelation patterns in the two samples differed markedly, suggesting that the ability structure underlying spatial performance may be different in the two cultures.