AWM Article Review

Reviewed by: Dr. Helen Moore moore@math.stanford.edu.

It was one of the studies that attempted to refute Benbow and Stanley's far-reaching claims that girls simply aren't as good as boys are at math. The article is by

Goldstein, Haldane, and Mitchell,

Sex differences in visual-spatial ability: The role of performance factors,

Memory and Cognition, 1990, 18(5), 546-550.

The study replicates previous results showing large sex differences in scores on the Mental Rotations Test (MRT), and then shows that there is no statistically significant sex difference when the MRT is administered without the time limit. The authors question whether this exam (and other exams on which time is a large factor in scores) is measuring ability/aptitude (as claimed) or measuring speed.