Relationships among cognitive complexity, sex, and spatial task performance in college students

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psychology

Background:

• Prior research indicates a connection between field independence, cognitive complexity, and spatial ability.
• This suggests a potential unitary cognitive style influencing both spatial and social differentiation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between object differentiation (spatial ability) and social differentiation (cognitive complexity).
• To test if cognitive complexity positively correlates with performance on a spatial task.
• To examine potential gender differences in this relationship.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a spatial task (water level task) and multiple cognitive complexity measures.
• Included the Barron Complexity scale, Intolerance of Ambiguity scale, and differentiation measures.
• Participants: 38 males and 98 female undergraduates.

Main Results:

• Confirmed predictions that cognitive complexity relates to spatial task performance and that males outperform females.
• Found a significant difference in the relationship between cognitive complexity and spatial performance based on gender.
• Males showed considerably higher correlations between spatial task scores and complexity measures compared to females.

Conclusions:

• Spatial task performance may be linked to a general cognitive style in males.
• This apparent link between cognitive style and spatial performance does not seem to hold for females.
• Results suggest gender-specific relationships between cognitive complexity and spatial abilities.