On the nature of difficulties in spatial-perceptual tasks: ethnic and sex differences

The common claim that Africans exhibit a general weakness in handling spatial relationships is questioned, as is that of a general male superiority. The aim of the study was to identify some of the specific areas in which ethnic and sex differences may be located. A sample of 72 Ghanaian children evenly divided according to sex and early, middle and later stages of primary schooling were administered a series of tasks adapted from Piaget & Inhelder (1971); the same tasks were given to an equivalent group of Scottish children. On a block construction task involving memory the Ghanaians performed at the same level as the Scots when working from models, but not when the presentation consisted of photographs or line drawings (P less than 0.001). On two tasks requiring mental rotation of shapes and, subsequently, the actual assembly of shapes into regular figures, the Ghanaians again experienced more difficulty (P less than 0.001). Intercorrelation of scores on the various tasks suggested that the underlying structures of abilities may differ in Ghana and Scotland. The pattern of sex differences was exactly the same in both cultures. Girls did less well with the block construction (P less than 0.001), but there was no significant sex difference on mental rotation or shape assembly.