Sex differences in self-assessed, everyday spatial abilities: differential practice or self-esteem?

358 female and 203 male college students compared themselves to others of the same gender and age on 10 everyday spatial abilities, also indicating for each ability the time spent per week in practice. Men's higher ratings for eight abilities were accompanied by greater practice on four. This finding, given equally strong correlations within each sex between rated ability and practice, lends more support to a hypothesis of differential practice between the sexes than differential self-esteem to account for sex differences in spatial performance.