Observational training improves adult womens' performance on Piaget's water-level task

Among women university students who lacked conceptual understanding of the principle that the surface of still water is always horizontal, a specific task procedure designed to optimize self-discovery of the principle proved effective. Successful learning was reflected in more accurate responses on an adjustment task and by a significant increase (p less than .01) in the number of subjects able to verbalize a correct strategy. In contrast to previous research the results show that adult womens' performance on the water-level task can be improved by observational training, suggesting that the female lag in spatial skills may depend on experiential factors.